J&J blood cancer drug gets UK launch
pharmafile | March 25, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Cancer, J&J, JJ, Janssen, NICE, Velcade, bortezomib, mcl, nhl
Johnson and Johnson’s pharma unit Janssen is launching Velcade in the UK for the first-line treatment of Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), an aggressive subtype of blood cancers collectively known as Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL).
Velcade (bortezomib) has been licensed for the treatment of multiple myeloma since 2004, but now this MCL indication has been granted by the European Commission which provides marketing authorisation for medicines in the UK and Europe.
The firm is clearly looking to breathe new life into its older drugs as they approach patency woes (as does Velcade over the next two years) as it witnessed a noticeable flattening in sales in 2014 compared with the year before. As whilst its blockbuster biologic Remicade (infliximab) increased by $200m for example, Velcade fell by $42 million.
However, Professor Simon Rule who is a consultant haematologist at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, says: “The launch of bortezomib is a step forward in the treatment of MCL and represents a significant advance in this disease setting.”
Adding that bortezomib is already a well-known and widely used drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma, Rule adds: “This launch in MCL is exciting as it represents a real change in the blood-based cancer treatment landscape and means that patients with the disease can experience a sustained disease-free period.”
Phase III trial results showed that patients with previously untreated MCL, who were unsuitable for blood stem-cell transplantation, had an improvement in progression free survival compared to the control arm when treated with bortezomib in combination with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and prednisone.
Last year NICE recommended Janssen’s proteasome inhibitor Velcade as an induction treatment for some patients with newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma, and now it will be hoping for the same result in the MCL setting.
The firm even says it has already submitted an application to NICE, and to the National Cancer Drugs Fund (nCDF) for its offering in MCL – and that it expects the decisions on these to arrive in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Janssen adds that around one in every 25 people will be diagnosed with a blood-based cancer during their lifetime, and NHL is the sixth most common cancer in the UK – with more than 45,000 people currently living with the disease.
Of these, one in 20 people are affected by MCL (5%), which has a poor prognosis with fewer than three in ten patients surviving the disease for five years or more.
Mark Hicken, managing director of Janssen, says: “We are proud of our haematology portfolio and are committed to extending and improving the lives of people living in the UK and around the world with blood-based cancers such as MCL. We want to ensure that as many eligible patients as possible have access to our treatments.”
Brett Wells
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