On November 20, 2020 ADC Therapeutics SA (NYSE: ADCT), a late clinical-stage oncology-focused biotechnology company pioneering the development and commercialization of highly potent and targeted antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for patients with hematological malignancies and solid tumors, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its Biologics License Application (BLA) for loncastuximab tesirine (Lonca) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and granted priority review status (Press release, ADC Therapeutics, NOV 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234571466]). The FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act ("PDUFA") target date of May 21, 2021.
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"The FDA’s acceptance of our BLA and granting of priority review for Lonca is a tremendous accomplishment that brings ADC Therapeutics one step closer to being able to offer patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL a greatly needed new treatment option in 2021," said Chris Martin, Chief Executive Officer of ADC Therapeutics. "We look forward to working with the FDA during its review of our BLA submission for Lonca. Our organization remains focused on robust planning for a successful launch next year."
The BLA submission is based on data from LOTIS 2, the pivotal Phase 2 multi-center, open-label, single-arm clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of Lonca in patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL following two or more lines of prior therapy. In June 2020, the Company presented maturing data from LOTIS 2 at the virtual 25th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) (Free EHA Whitepaper). As of the April 6th cutoff date, Lonca demonstrated an overall response rate of 48.3% (70/145 patients) and a complete response rate of 24.1% (35/145 patients). The tolerability profile was manageable with the most common grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse events in ≥10% of patients being: neutropenia (25.5%) with low incidence of febrile neutropenia (3.4%), thrombocytopenia (17.9%), GGT increase (16.6%) and anaemia (10.3%).
Data from subgroup analyses of LOTIS 2 will be presented in a poster (abstract #1183) at the upcoming 62nd American Society for Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting on Saturday, December 5, 2020.
About Loncastuximab Tesirine (Lonca)
Loncastuximab tesirine (Lonca, formerly ADCT-402) is an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) composed of a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against human CD19 and conjugated through a linker to a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer cytotoxin. Once bound to a CD19-expressing cell, Lonca is designed to be internalized by the cell, following which the warhead is released. The warhead is designed to bind irreversibly to DNA to create highly potent interstrand cross-links that block DNA strand separation, thus disrupting essential DNA metabolic processes such as replication and ultimately resulting in cell death. CD19 is a clinically validated target for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.
Lonca, the Company’s lead product candidate, has been evaluated in a 145-patient pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that showed a 48.3% overall response rate (ORR), which exceeded the target primary endpoint. Lonca is also being evaluated in LOTIS 3, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in combination with ibrutinib in patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL or mantle cell lymphoma, and LOTIS 5, a Phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial in combination with rituximab in patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL.