Teva Receives Approval For SYNRIBOTM (Omacetaxine Mepesuccinate) for Injection
**My thoughts: this should get about 5-10 patients in total
Treats Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) in Patients Who Have Become
Resistant to or Intolerant of Two of More Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors
Protein Synthesis Inhibitor Provides New Treatment Option for CML
Patients who Fail Prior TKI Therapy
Business Wire11:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time Oct 26, 2012
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved SYNRIBO (omacetaxine mepesuccinate) for Injection to treat adult patients with chronic phase (CP) or accelerated phase (AP) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with resistance and/or intolerance to two or more tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). The indication is based upon response rate. There are no trials verifying an improvement in disease-related symptoms or increased survival with SYNRIBO. It will be available for prescribing shortly.
Previously, CP and AP CML patients who failed on two or more TKIs have had limited treatment options. “While the CML treatment landscape has seen advancements with available TKI treatments, there are still cases where patients may not be able to continue using TKIs due to issues such as resistance, intolerance, suboptimal response, and disease progression,” said Jorge E. Cortes, M.D., deputy chair and professor of medicine in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “With SYNRIBO, physicians will now have access to another option, offering potential hope to patients who experience treatment failure.”
SYNRIBO received an accelerated approval that allows the FDA to approve a drug to treat a serious disease based on clinical data showing that the drug has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit to patients. The program is designed to provide patients with earlier access to promising new drugs. Full approval is expected following submission of more mature data from pivotal analysis.
“Teva Pharmaceuticals is pleased to bring SYNRIBO to the market for patients who need additional treatment options when others have failed,” said Michael R. Hayden, M.D., Ph.D., President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. “SYNRIBO joins TREANDA and TRISENOX as important hematologic treatment options in the Teva Oncology portfolio.”
The approval is based on an analysis of combined data subsets from two Phase II, open-label, multicenter studies. The pooled analysis included patients who had received 2 or more approved TKIs and, at a minimum, had evidence of resistance or intolerance to dasatinib and/or nilotinib. 47% of CP patients and 63% of AP patients had failed treatment with imatinib, dasatinib, and nilotinib. The majority of patients had also received other treatments including hydroxyurea, interferon, and cytarabine.
For CP patients, 18% (14/76) achieved a major cytogenetic response (MCyR) with a mean time to MCyR onset of 3.5 months. The median duration of MCyR for these patients was 12.5 months (Kaplan-Meier estimate).
For AP Patients, 14% (5/35) achieved a major hematologic response (MaHR) with a mean time to response onset of 2.3 months. The median duration of MaHR for these patients was 4.7 months (Kaplan-Meier estimate).
Most common adverse reactions (frequency =20%) in chronic and accelerated phase patients: thrombocytopenia, anemia, neutropenia, diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, asthenia, injection site reaction, pyrexia, infection, and lymphopenia
Administered subcutaneously, SYNRIBO will be dosed twice daily for 14 consecutive days of a 28-day cycle at treatment induction, and twice daily for seven consecutive days of a 28-day cycle during maintenance therapy once a response is achieved.
