In May 2003 Velcade was launched for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma – a cancer of the blood. At the time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma for patients who had not responded to at least two other therapies for the disease. Velcade — the first FDA-approved proteasome inhibitor — reached the market in record time and represented the first treatment in more than a decade to be approved for patients with multiple myeloma.