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VIDEO: Array of FDA myeloma drug approvals, new research steer field in filling ‘unmet medical need’
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Ajai Chari, MD, director of Clinical Research in the Multiple Myeloma Program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, discusses developments in the various treatments for the disease and highlights unanswered questions.
“In the last 15 years, we have had a total of nine new drugs approved across four different classes, and the fact that four of them occurred just last year shows the kind of pace, the kind of interest that’s out there, and really the unmet medical need,” Chari said.
Chari details the evolution of the therapeutic armamentarium leading to a total of six drug classes, in addition to steroids and conventional chemotherapeutics, currently.
He outlines the promise of four recently-approved agents — oral HDAC inhibitor panobinostat (Farydak, Novartis), oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro, Takeda Pharmaceuticals) and monoclonal antibodies elotuzumab (Empliciti, Bristol-Myers Squibb) and daratumumab (Darzalex, Janssen).
Chari highlights the clinical utility of these novel therapies alongside existing proteasome inhibitors bortezomib (Velcade, Millennium Pharmaceuticals) and carfilzomib (Kyprolis, Onyx) and immunomodulatory drugs thalidomide (Thalomid, Celgene), lenalidomide (Revlimid, Celgene) and pomalidomide (Pomalyst, Celgene).
Finally, he describes the potential of monoclonal antibodies to target high-risk populations including patients who are elderly, frail or experiencing renal failure.