FDA ush­ers in a new era in can­cer treat­ment with 'his­toric' CAR-T ap­proval for No­var­tis

The FDA has ap­proved the world’s first CAR-T ther­a­py, giv­ing a green light to No­var­tis for Kym­ri­ah (ti­s­agen­le­cleu­cel) in what reg­u­la­tors them­selves de­scribe as an his­toric event.

The ear­ly ap­proval — about a month ahead of the PDU­FA date — came through for cer­tain pe­di­atric and young adult pa­tients with a form of acute lym­phoblas­tic leukemia.

No­var­tis set the price for the one-time treat­ment at $475,000, right in line with low-end es­ti­mates and one that will put pres­sure on Gilead to rein in its own price for a ri­val ther­a­py ex­pect­ed to be ap­proved in the near fu­ture.

Scott Got­tlieb, FDA Com­mis­sion­er

None oth­er than FDA com­mis­sion­er Scott Got­tlieb did the hon­ors in the agency’s state­ment, not­ing:

We’re en­ter­ing a new fron­tier in med­ical in­no­va­tion with the abil­i­ty to re­pro­gram a pa­tient’s own cells to at­tack a dead­ly can­cer. New tech­nolo­gies such as gene and cell ther­a­pies hold out the po­ten­tial to trans­form med­i­cine and cre­ate an in­flec­tion point in our abil­i­ty to treat and even cure many in­tractable ill­ness­es. At the FDA, we’re com­mit­ted to help­ing ex­pe­dite the de­vel­op­ment and re­view of ground­break­ing treat­ments that have the po­ten­tial to be life-sav­ing.

A group of bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies have been rac­ing to this break­through point. Kite Phar­ma $KITE, new­ly bought out in a $12 bil­lion deal by Gilead $GILD, is com­ing in a close sec­ond with its own ap­pli­ca­tion for axi­cel.

No­var­tis’ in­ves­ti­ga­tors reg­is­tered a game-chang­ing 83% re­mis­sion rate in its piv­otal study.

CAR-T, though, is al­so as­so­ci­at­ed with se­vere and po­ten­tial­ly dead­ly side ef­fects, in­clud­ing lethal in­stances of cy­tokine re­lease syn­drome with some pa­tients dy­ing from brain swelling in sep­a­rate stud­ies from the No­var­tis drug.

Reg­u­la­tors not­ed that they will re­quire spe­cial train­ing for any­one in­volved in de­liv­er­ing this ther­a­py, while ex­pand­ing the ap­proval of Actem­ra (tocilizum­ab) to treat CAR T-cell-in­duced se­vere or life-threat­en­ing CRS in pa­tients 2 years of age or old­er. “In clin­i­cal tri­als in pa­tients treat­ed with CAR-T cells,” the FDA re­port­ed, “69% of pa­tients had com­plete res­o­lu­tion of CRS with­in two weeks fol­low­ing one or two dos­es of Actem­ra.”

This ther­a­py, which is made us­ing a pa­tient’s own im­mune cells, won’t be cheap.

By its own reck­on­ing, the UK’s tough watch dog on drug pric­ing has said that these drugs would be worth up to $649,000 a year, giv­en the young pa­tients it’s tar­get­ing first. An­a­lysts, mean­while, have pegged the price at any­where from $400,000 to $750,000.

In a call with an­a­lysts, No­var­tis ex­ecs said it would keep the price well be­low the high end, set­ting the cost at $475,000 for a drug that will be avail­able in 20 cen­ters with­in one month, and 35 soon af­ter.

In a state­ment the com­pa­ny said it “is col­lab­o­rat­ing with CMS to make an out­comes-based ap­proach avail­able to al­low for pay­ment on­ly when pe­di­atric and young adult ALL pa­tients re­spond to Kym­ri­ah by the end of the first month. Fu­ture po­ten­tial in­di­ca­tions would be re­viewed for the most rel­e­vant out­comes-based ap­proach.”

Joe Jimenez

Said Joseph Jimenez, CEO of No­var­tis:

Five years ago, we be­gan col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia and in­vest­ed in fur­ther de­vel­op­ing and bring­ing what we be­lieved would be a par­a­digm-chang­ing im­muno­cel­lu­lar ther­a­py to can­cer pa­tients in dire need. With the ap­proval of Kym­ri­ah, we are once again de­liv­er­ing on our com­mit­ment to change the course of can­cer care.

This ap­proval marks a ma­jor shift in on­col­o­gy, with a tru­ly rev­o­lu­tion­ary ap­proach to treat­ing can­cer. That hasn’t es­caped the no­tice of big play­ers and small, with a host of de­vel­op­ers look­ing to do much bet­ter, more safe­ly, with new drugs in the pipeline.

It’s a big day in the biotech world, but it’s just the of­fi­cial start date for a new era.

Has the mo­ment fi­nal­ly ar­rived for val­ue-based health­care?

RBC Capital Markets’ Healthcare Technology Analyst, Sean Dodge, spotlights a new breed of tech-enabled providers who are rapidly transforming the way clinicians deliver healthcare, and explores the key question: can this accelerating revolution overturn the US healthcare system?

Key points

Tech-enabled healthcare providers are poised to help the US transition to value, not volume, as the basis for reward.
The move to value-based care has policy momentum, but is risky and complex for clinicians.
Outsourced tech specialists are emerging to provide the required expertise, while healthcare and tech are also converging through M&A.
Value-based care remains in its early stages, but the transition is accelerating and represents a huge addressable market.

No­vo Nordisk re­mains un­der UK scruti­ny as MHRA con­ducts its own re­view in 'in­cred­i­bly rare' case

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is now reviewing Novo Nordisk’s marketing violation that resulted in its loss of UK trade group membership last week. Novo Nordisk was suspended on Thursday from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) for two years after an investigation by its regulatory arm found the pharma broke its conduct rules.

MHRA said on Tuesday that its review of the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) investigation is standard practice. An MHRA spokesperson emphasized in an email to Endpoints News that the situation with Novo Nordisk is “incredibly rare” while also noting ABPI took “swift and proportionate action.”

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FTC says patent bat­tle over Parkin­son's drug could have 'sig­nif­i­cant im­pli­ca­tion­s' for pa­tients

The Federal Trade Commission has gotten involved in a patent feud over Supernus’ Parkinson’s drug Apokyn, a case the agency said may have ‘‘significant implications” for patients who rely on the drug.

Sage Chemical won the first generic approval for its Apokyn formulation (also known as apomorphine hydrochloride injection) back in 2022. The non-ergoline dopamine agonist is approved to treat Parkinson’s symptoms during “off episodes,” such as difficulty moving, tremors and intense cramping. However, regulators specified that the approval pertained to the generic drug cartridges only, not the injector pen required for administration.

Mar­ket­ingRx roundup: What could a US Tik­Tok ban mean for phar­ma? Pfiz­er, Lil­ly lead phar­ma March Mad­ness ad­ver­tis­ers

Just as pharma marketers finally make moves into TikTok, the threat of a US ban on the social media channel is now looming. Already banned on federal employee phones by an initial Congressional act, more bills and maybe bans are on the way. With rare bipartisan agreement, lawmakers have introduced legislation that would give the US president the power to ban TikTok (although not mentioned by name) and other foreign-owned technology platforms that represent a security threat to the US.

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Chat­G­PT with phar­ma da­ta de­buts for med­ical meet­ings, be­gin­ning with AACR

What do you get when you combine ChatGPT generative AI technology with specific pharma and clinical datasets? A time-saving tool that can answer questions about medical conference abstracts and clinical findings in seconds in one new application from ZoomRx called FermaGPT.

ZoomRx is debuting a public version of its generative AI product specifically for medical conferences beginning this week for the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting that runs April 14-19.

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Andy Plump, Takeda R&D chief (Jeff Rumans for Endpoints News)

What kind of PhI­Ib da­ta is worth $4B cash? Take­da’s Andy Plump has some thoughts on that

A few months back, when Takeda caused jaws to drop with its eye-watering $4 billion cash upfront for a mid-stage TYK2 drug from Nimbus, it had already taken a deep dive on the solid Phase IIb data Nimbus had assembled from its dose-ranging study in psoriasis.

Now, it’s rolling that data out, eager to demonstrate what inspired the global biopharma to go long in a neighboring, but new, disease arena for the pipeline. And the most avid students of the numbers will likely be at Bristol Myers Squibb, who will have a multi-year head start on pioneering the TYK2 space with Sotyktu (deucravacitinib) as Takeda makes its lunge for best-in-class status.

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European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, Pool)

One fi­nal push: EU phar­ma in­dus­try group de­mands com­pe­ti­tion check on in­com­ing leg­isla­tive over­haul

The Brussels-based European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) this morning called on the European Commission to ensure that it adequately assesses how its re-writing of the 20+-year-old pharma legislation, which is due to be released before the end of the month, damages the competitiveness of the pharma industry.

EFPIA’s opposition to the changes has lingered since the beginning, and its latest estimate is that the rewritten legislation could cost the industry €640 million ($688 million).

Growth hor­mone from No­vo Nordisk is in short­age over man­u­fac­tur­ing de­lays

Novo Nordisk’s growth hormone Norditropin is in shortage because of manufacturing delays, according to an FDA site that tracks drug shortages as well as the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ shortages list.

The FDA has shortages of the drug listed for its 5, 10, 15 and 30 mg doses, while the pharmacists’ group, also known as ASHP, reported shortages of the same doses, except for the 15 mg version.

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PhRMA calls for more di­verse in­fra­struc­ture up­grades to US emer­gency tri­als frame­work

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) last year sought to find ways to better coordinate large-scale clinical trials in the US — as the UK lead by example during the pandemic — especially for these emergency clinical trials.

The lobbying group PhRMA Tuesday called for more clinical trial diversity in underserved areas, including by making participation less of a burden, and expanding eligibility criteria when appropriate.