AZ, Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu scores approval in the UK
16th February 2021
AstraZeneca (AZ) and Daiichi Sankyo’s antibody drug conjugate (ADC) Enhertu has scored a conditional marketing authorisation in the UK for certain breast cancer patients.
The conditional marketing authorisation covers the use of Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) as a monotherapy for the treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, who have received two or more prior anti-HER2 based regimens.
The UK authorisation is based on results from the Phase II DESTINY-Breast01 trial, in which patients treated with Enhertu demonstrated a confirmed objective response rate (ORR) of 61.4%, as well as a 6.5% complete response rate and a 54.9% partial response rate.
SMC approves funding for four new medicines on the NHS
9th February 2021
In its February 2021 meeting, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has accepted four new medicines for use by the NHS in Scotland.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s (BMS) multiple sclerosis (MS) oral therapy Zeposia (ozanimod) has been accepted for the treatment of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).
Zeposia is used in RRMS patients with active disease, where patients have relapses or signs of active inflammation on scans.
Also approved for use by NHS Scotland was AbbVie’s JAK inhibitor Rinvoq, which has been accepted for the treatment of severe rheumatoid arthritis that is inadequately controlled by disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS).