- Breakthrough Therapy Designation Based on Initial Results from Phase 1b/2 EV-103 Clinical Trial -
TOKYO and BOTHELL, Wash., February 19, 2020 – Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., “Astellas”) and Seattle Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SGEN) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for PADCEV™ (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) in combination with Merck’s (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the treatment of patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who are unable to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy in the first-line setting.
The FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy process is designed to expedite the development and review of drugs that are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening condition. Designation is based upon preliminary clinical evidence indicating that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints.
“The FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy designation reflects the encouraging preliminary evidence for the combination of PADCEV and pembrolizumab in previously untreated advanced urothelial cancer to benefit patients who are in need of effective treatment options,” said Andrew Krivoshik, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Astellas. “We look forward to continuing our work with the FDA as we progress our clinical development program as quickly as possible.”
“This is an important step in our investigation of PADCEV in combination with pembrolizumab as a first-line therapy for patients with advanced urothelial cancer who are unable to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy,” said Roger Dansey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Seattle Genetics. “Based on encouraging early clinical activity, we recently initiated a phase 3 trial of this platinum-free combination and look forward to potentially addressing an unmet need for patients.”
The Breakthrough Therapy designation was granted based on results from the dose-escalation cohort and expansion cohort A of the phase 1b/2 trial, EV-103 (NCT03288545), evaluating patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who are unable to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy treated in the first-line setting with PADCEV in combination with pembrolizumab. Initial results from the trial were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress, and updated findings at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. EV-103 is an ongoing, multi-cohort, open-label, multicenter phase 1b/2 trial of PADCEV alone or in combination, evaluating safety, tolerability and efficacy in muscle invasive, locally advanced and first- and second-line metastatic urothelial cancer.
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