The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Kisqali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to also treat patients with earlier stages of the disease, drugmaker Novartis said Tuesday.

While Verzenio, a drug in the same class, has been approved to lower the risk of early breast cancer returning, it's only for people with a very high risk of recurrence. Kisqali will be available to a much broader group of patients, whose disease may not be as aggressive at the time of diagnosis, Novartis said.

Unlike rival CDK 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib, patients don't need to be lymph-node positive to receive ribociclib after surgery.

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, comments on the progress of the firm's Kisqali metastatic breast cancer drug after the company recently received an extended approval for it from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.