FOSTER CITY, Calif.– Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion for sacituzumab govitecan as monotherapy indicated for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for advanced disease. The final European Commission decision on the Marketing Authorization Application for sacituzumab govitecan is anticipated later in 2021.
TNBC is the most aggressive type of breast cancer and accounts for approximately 15% of all breast cancers. It is more frequently diagnosed in younger and premenopausal women and is more prevalent in Black and Hispanic women. The five-year survival rate for this sub-type is 12%, compared with 28% for other breast cancer types, and these poor outcomes are often coupled with a significant decrease in quality of life, especially in relapsed/refractory disease. Sacituzumab govitecan is a first-in-class Trop-2 directed antibody-drug conjugate. Trop-2 is a protein located on the surface of cells and is overexpressed in TNBC and many other tumors.
“Effective treatment options are extremely limited for patients with metastatic TNBC, especially once they progress. We are encouraged by this CHMP positive opinion for sacituzumab govitecan, as we are now one step closer to bringing this much needed treatment option to patients across Europe,” said Merdad Parsey, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Gilead Sciences. “We look forward to the final decision by the EMA and the potential for sacituzumab govitecan to become a new standard of care for use as a second-line option.”
The positive opinion is supported by results from the Phase 3 ASCENT study, where sacituzumab govitecan showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful 57% reduction in the risk of disease worsening or death and improved median progression-free survival (PFS) to 4.8 months from 1.7 months seen with physician’s choice of chemotherapy alone among all randomized patients, which included those with and without brain metastases (HR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.35-0.54; p<0.0001). Sacituzumab govitecan also reduced the risk of death by 49% and improved median overall survival to 11.8 months vs. 6.9 months with physician’s choice of chemotherapy (HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.41-0.62; p<0.0001). The most common Grade 3 or higher adverse reactions were neutropenia (49.5%), leukopenia (12.0%), diarrhea (10.7%), anemia (10.1%), febrile neutropenia (6.6%), fatigue (5.2%), hypophosphatemia (5.2%), nausea (4.1%) and vomiting (3.0%). The sacituzumab govitecan U.S. Prescribing Information has a BOXED WARNING for severe or life-threatening neutropenia and severe diarrhea; see below for Important Safety Information.
Sacituzumab govitecan (under the trade name Trodelvy®) is approved in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, and the United States in metastatic TNBC, and review is also underway in Singapore and China through Everest Medicines.
