As drug de­vel­op­ers seek ways to ex­pand ther­a­peu­tic ap­pli­ca­tions and over­come the hur­dles seen with the first gen­er­a­tion of an­ti­body drug con­ju­gates (AD­Cs), Roche is cap­i­tal­iz­ing on its tro­jan horse ADC — pow­ered by Seat­tle Ge­net­ics’ tech­nol­o­gy — as gener­ics eat in­to the sales of its tri­fec­ta of top can­cer drugs. On Tues­day, the Swiss drug­mak­er said its an­ti-CD79b ADC — po­latuzum­ab ve­dotin — had won the FDA’s pri­or­i­ty re­view for use in pa­tients with re­lapsed or re­frac­to­ry dif­fuse large B-cell lym­phoma (DL­B­CL), a field that is with­in the clutch of CAR-T ther­a­pies.

The FDA is ex­pect­ed to make its de­ci­sion by Au­gust 19, Roche said on Tues­day.

Po­latuzum­ab ve­dotin is be­ing re­viewed by the reg­u­la­tor when added to ben­damus­tine and Rit­ux­an (BR). The triplet had pre­vi­ous­ly se­cured break­through ther­a­py sta­tus. The pri­or­i­ty re­view was grant­ed on the ba­sis of an 80-pa­tient study in heav­i­ly pre-treat­ed sub­jects that showed the com­bo eclipsed me­di­an over­all sur­vival (an ex­plorato­ry end­point) com­pared to BR alone, help­ing pa­tients live longer by 12.4 months ver­sus 4.7 months. Da­ta al­so showed 40% of peo­ple treat­ed with po­latuzum­ab ve­dotin plus BR achieved a com­plete re­sponse (CR), while on­ly 18% of peo­ple treat­ed with BR alone achieved a CR.

The CD79b pro­tein is ex­pressed in the ma­jor­i­ty of types of B-cell non-Hodgkin lym­phomas, the most com­mon sub­type of NHL. Al­though pa­tients are gen­er­al­ly re­spon­sive to first­line treat­ment, as many as 40% of pa­tients re­lapse, af­ter which op­tions are lim­it­ed and sur­vival is short. Po­latuzum­ab ve­dotin, which is be­ing test­ed for use in sev­er­al types of NHL, binds to CD79b and dec­i­mates B-cells via a tar­get­ed ap­proach: min­i­miz­ing the ef­fects on healthy cells while max­i­miz­ing tu­mour cell death, us­ing ADC tech that is some­times likened to a tro­jan horse as it is en­gi­neered to go un­no­ticed, de­liv­er­ing chemother­a­pies to cells ex­press­ing the anti­gen tar­get.

Sep­a­rate­ly, Roche has al­so won a pri­or­i­ty re­view for en­trec­tinib, a drug for use in neu­rotroph­ic tropomyosin re­cep­tor ki­nase (NTRK) fu­sion-pos­i­tive, lo­cal­ly ad­vanced or metasta­t­ic sol­id tu­mors in pa­tients whose can­cer has pro­gressed de­spite ther­a­py as well as pa­tients with metasta­t­ic ROS-1 pos­i­tive non-small cell lung can­cer (NSCLC).

The FDA is ex­pect­ed to make its de­ci­sion on the drug, which has pre­vi­ous­ly se­cured break­through ther­a­py sta­tus, by Au­gust 18, Roche said.

Roche, which bagged en­trec­tinib late in 2017 with its $1.7 bil­lion Igny­ta buy­out, hopes the drug will fare well ver­sus Bay­er’s Vi­t­rakvi — the first drug ap­proved by the FDA for NTRK fu­sion can­cers and the run­ner up ’tis­sue ag­nos­tic’ can­cer treat­ment that won the US reg­u­la­to­ry nod. With­in NSCLC, en­trec­tinib will be up against Pfiz­er’s Xalko­ri, which is the stan­dard treat­ment in ROS-1 pos­i­tive pa­tients.

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”

The FDA today approved Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter sales. The nod was expected and comes on the heels of a unanimous 19-0 advisory committee vote in favor of approval last month.

The move to OTC means the opioid overdose reversal agent will now be available on grocery, convenience and gas stations shelves, as well as potentially for purchase online.