FDA Approves Eisai’s Lenvima

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Eisai’s Lenvima (lenvatinib) to treat patients with progressive, differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) whose disease progressed despite receiving radioactive iodine therapy (radioactive iodine refractory disease).

Lenvima was reviewed under the FDA's priority review program, which provides for an expedited review of drugs that, if approved, would provide significant improvement in safety or effectiveness in the treatment of a serious condition. The drug also received orphan product designation because it is intended to treat a rare disease. Lenvima is being approved approximately two months ahead of the prescription drug user fee goal date of April 14, 2015, the date when the agency was scheduled to complete its review of the application.

Lenvima is an oral, small-molecule kinase inhibitor. The drug is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor that inhibits the kinase activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors VEGFR1 (FLT1), VEGFR2 (KDR), and VEGFR3 (FLT4). Lenvatinib also inhibits other RTKs that have been implicated in pathogenic angiogenesis, tumor growth, and cancer progression in addition to their normal cellular functions, including fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors FGFR1, 2, 3, and 4; the platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα), KIT, and RET.

Currently, the drug is undergoing regulatory review in Japan and the European Union (EU) as well as in Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, Russia, Australia, and Brazil. Lenvima was also granted accelerated assessment in the EU. Eisai is also conducting a global Phase III trial of Lenvima in hepatocellular carcinoma as well as Phase II studies of Lenvima in several other tumor types such as renal cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer.

Source: FDA and Eisai

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