FDA ap­proves GSK's BC­MA drug, mark­ing a rocky re­turn to can­cer for the British gi­ant

De­spite con­cerns on both safe­ty and ef­fi­ca­cy, the FDA ap­proved Glax­o­SmithK­line’s mul­ti­ple myelo­ma drug be­lan­tam­ab mafodotin, de­cid­ing that for the sick­est pa­tients the ben­e­fits out­weighed the risk. It will be mar­ket­ed as Blenrep and sold for $23,900 per month.

The ap­proval is no­table both for the mul­ti­ple myelo­ma field and for GSK it­self. It’s the first ap­proval for a drug that tar­gets BC­MA, a pro­tein over­ex­pressed on mul­ti­ple myelo­ma cells that re­searchers have been try­ing to tar­get for over a decade. A flur­ry of oth­er BC­MA drugs, hav­ing al­ready shown promise in ear­ly tri­als, are like­ly to fol­low in the next few years.

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