Pharmaceutical Business review

Seattle Genetics gets FDA priority review for tucatinib in locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer

The US FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (Credit: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration/Wikipedia.org)

This NDA requests FDA approval of tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine for treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including patients with brain metastases, who have received at least three prior HER2-directed agents separately or in combination, in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant or metastatic setting. The filing is based on the results of HER2CLIMB, a randomized pivotal trial comparing tucatinib added to trastuzumab and capecitabine versus trastuzumab and capecitabine alone. HER2CLIMB trial results were recently presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), the FDA has set a target action date of August 20, 2020. Tucatinib is an oral, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is highly selective for HER2.

“The FDA’s filing of the tucatinib NDA marks an important step forward for patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including those with brain metastases,” said Clay Siegall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Genetics. “We are working collaboratively with the FDA throughout the review process to bring this important medicine to patients as quickly as possible.”

The NDA for tucatinib was submitted in December 2019 and is being reviewed under the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) Pilot Program. The review of the tucatinib NDA is also being conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence. Project Orbis provides a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology drugs among participating international partners. Tucatinib was recently granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine for the treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, including patients with brain metastases, who have been treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and T-DM1. This designation was based on data from the pivotal HER2CLIMB trial.

Source: Company Press Release