PUBLISHED ONSeptember 05, 2018 6:28 AM
TOKYO, Sep 5, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. and Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth N.J., U.S.A., known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved the kinase inhibitor LENVIMA (lenvatinib) as a single agent for the treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have not received prior systemic therapy. In China, the application of LENVIMA was submitted in October 2017, and was designated for Priority Review by the NMPA due to LENVIMA's significant clinical benefit compared to existing treatments, leading to approval in approximately 10 months. This approval marks the first for LENVIMA in China, where the incidence of HCC is high,(1) and the first new systemic therapy approved for the first-line treatment of unresectable HCC in China in ten years.(1)
The approval was based on results from the REFLECT study (Study 304),(2) an open-label, Phase 3 trial where LENVIMA demonstrated a treatment effect on overall survival (OS)(1) by statistical confirmation of non-inferiority when compared with the standard of care, sorafenib, in 954 patients with previously untreated unresectable HCC. LENVIMA demonstrated statistically significant superiority and clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free survival (PFS)(2), time to progression (TTP)(3) and objective response rate (ORR)(4). In a subpopulation analysis of 288 patients in the study from the greater Chinese region (mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), LENVIMA demonstrated efficacy based on non-inferiority of OS compared to sorafenib, with improvements also observed in PFS, TTP and ORR3. Approximately 80% of patients in the subpopulation were living with HCC resulting from chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), which has high unmet medical need. For these patients, LENVIMA demonstrated non-inferiority based on OS compared with sorafenib, thereby demonstrating the effect of LENVIMA in patients with HCC resulting from HBV.
In the China package insert, the five most common adverse reactions observed in patients treated with LENVIMA were hypertension (45%), fatigue (44%), diarrhea (39%), decreased appetite (34%) and decreased weight (31%), which is consistent with the known side-effect profile of LENVIMA.
Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and is estimated to be responsible for approximately 750,000 deaths per year globally. Additionally, approximately 780,000 cases are newly diagnosed each year, about 80% of which occur in Asian regions. Specifically, in China, there are approximately 395,000 new cases and 380,000 deaths per year, accounting for approximately 50% of cases worldwide.(1) HCC accounts for 85% to 90% of primary liver cancer cases. Unresectable HCC, for which treatment options are limited, is extremely difficult to treat, and the development of new treatments is necessary.
Since the initial launch, more than 10,000 patients have been treated with LENVIMA. Today, LENVIMA is approved as a treatment for refractory thyroid cancer in over 50 countries including the United States, Japan, in Europe and Asia, and as combination with everolimus as a second-line treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in over 45 countries including the United States and in Europe. For HCC, LENVIMA was approved for use in Japan in March 2018, and in the United States and Europe in August 2018. In Japan, approximately 3,000 HCC patients have been treated with LENVIMA since approval of this indication.
(1) Overall Survival (OS): The time period from the commencement of cancer treatment up until death by any cause. Whether the cause of death is cancer or not is not taken into consideration for this variable.
(2) Progression Free Survival (PFS): PFS is the objectively confirmed time from the commencement of cancer treatment to the date of disease progression, or date of death from any cause, whichever occurs first.
(3) Time To Progression: TTP is the objectively confirmed time from the commencement of cancer treatment to the date of disease progression. Unlike PFS, TTP does not consider death from any cause.
(4) Objective Response Rate (ORR): ORR is the combined proportion of patients whose tumor was eliminated (complete response) and whose tumor was reduced by over 30% in size (partial response) as verified by imaging assessment.
About Eisai
Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call our human health care philosophy. With approximately 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realize our human health care philosophy by delivering innovative products in various therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including Oncology and Neurology.
As a global pharmaceutical company, our mission extends to patients around the world through our investment and participation in partnership-based initiatives to improve access to medicines in developing and emerging countries.
For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit www.eisai.com.
Contact:
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