The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted Priority Medicines (PRIME) designation for entrectinib in the treatment of NTRK fusion-positive, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumours in adult and paediatric patients who have either progressed following prior therapies or who have no acceptable standard therapy.

Through the PRIME initiative, manufacturers Ignyta will have enhanced EMA support, including optimizing the entrectinib development pathway, potentially accelerating assessment of the Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA), and engaging in early discussion with EMA and health technology assessments (HTAs) regarding reimbursement pathways.

PRIME designation for entrectinib was substantially based on data from the Phase 2 global study, STARTRK-2.

Entrectinib is an investigational, orally available, CNS-active tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting tumors that harbor NTRK1/2/3 or ROS1 gene fusions.

Entrectinib was previously granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of NTRK fusion-positive, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumours in adult and pediatric patients who have either progressed following prior therapies or who have no acceptable standard therapies in May 2017.

The latest entrectinib data, presented at the IASLC 18th World Conference for Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, includes 

• Confirmed ORR of 78% (25 out of 32; by Investigator) and 69% (22 out of 32; by BICR).
• Median DOR of 28.6 months.
• Median PFS of 29.6 months.
• Strong CNS activity demonstrated with an 83% (5 out of 6; by BICR) confirmed intracranial ORR in patients with measurable CNS metastases at baseline.

"We are pleased and grateful that the EMA has accepted entrectinib into its PRIME program, which is analogous to the Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the U.S. FDA that entrectinib received earlier this year. This PRIME designation recognition is the result of the efforts of Ignyta’s team to ensure that entrectinib development was global in nature from its earliest days, and further validates the broad potential of entrectinib as a novel treatment for patients, regardless of age, with NTRK-positive tumors, a group of cancers for which there currently is no approved treatment,” said Jonathan Lim, M.D., chairman and CEO of Ignyta. “We look forward to collaborating with the EMA, as well as other global regulatory authorities, on the accelerated assessment of entrectinib with the goal to provide a new therapy for patients in need.”

Source: BusinessWire