Seagen and Genmab announced the submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking accelerated approval for tisotumab vedotin. This BLA requests FDA approval of tisotumab vedotin for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression on or after chemotherapy. The submission is based on the results of the innovaTV 204 pivotal phase 2 single-arm clinical trial evaluating tisotumab vedotin as monotherapy in this setting.
The topline results from the phase 2 study were announced in June 2020 and data were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020. Tisotumab vedotin is an investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) directed to tissue factor (TF), a cell-surface protein expressed on multiple solid tumors including cervical cancer and is associated with tumor growth, angiogenesis, metastasis and poor prognosis.
“In the pivotal phase 2 study, tisotumab vedotin induced clinically meaningful and durable responses in this difficult to treat cervical cancer patient population, with a manageable and tolerable safety profile. Today’s submission marks an important milestone for tisotumab vedotin and a potential advance for patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer for whom there is a high unmet need for effective new therapies,” said Roger Dansey, M.D., chief medical officer at Seagen. “We look forward to working with the FDA on the review of the application.”
“This BLA submission is an important step toward our goal of improving the lives of women with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. I would like to thank the patients, nurses, physicians and researchers who participated in the innovaTV 204 trial, which is the basis of this submission,” said Jan van de Winkel, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Genmab. “We believe, if approved, tisotumab vedotin as monotherapy has the potential to become an important treatment option for women with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, who have disease progression on or after chemotherapy.”
Cervical cancer originates in the cells lining the cervix. Over 13,500 women are expected to be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer in the US in 2020, with approximately 4,200 deaths. Cervical cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer death in women globally, with over 311,000 women dying annually; the vast majority of these women being in the developing world.
The innovaTV 204 trial (also known as GCT1015-04 or innovaTV 204/GOG-3023/ENGOT-cx6) is an ongoing single-arm, global, multicenter study of tisotumab vedotin for patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer who were previously treated with doublet chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab. Additionally, patients were eligible if they had received up to two prior lines of therapy in the recurrent or metastatic setting. In the study, 101 patients were treated with tisotumab vedotin at multiple centers in the U.S. and Europe. The primary endpoint of the trial was confirmed objective response rate per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) v1.1 as assessed by independent central review. Key secondary endpoints included duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, safety and tolerability.
Tisotumab vedotin is an investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) composed of Genmab’s fully human monoclonal antibody specific for tissue factor and Seagen’s ADC technology that utilizes a protease-cleavable linker that covalently attaches the microtubule-disrupting agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) to the antibody and releases it upon internalization, inducing target cell death. In cancer biology, tissue factor is a cell-surface protein and associated with tumor growth, angiogenesis, metastasis and poor prognosis.1 Based on its elevated expression in multiple solid tumors and its rapid internalization, tissue factor was selected as a target for an ADC approach. Tisotumab vedotin is being co-developed by Genmab and Seagen, under an agreement in which the companies share all costs and profits for the product on a 50:50 basis
