Exelixis, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXEL) today announced that its partner Ipsen received approval from the European Commission (EC) for CABOMETYX® (cabozantinib) tablets as a monotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adults who have previously been treated with sorafenib. This approval allows for the marketing of CABOMETYX in this indication in all 28 member states of the European Union, Norway and Iceland.
“The approval of CABOMETYX in the Europe Union is a very important milestone for our partner Ipsen and marks significant progress for people living with liver cancer, which is the second-leading cause of cancer death worldwide,” said Michael M. Morrissey, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Exelixis. “This patient community is in dire need of new options to treat this aggressive disease, and we are excited to work with Ipsen to make this treatment available to patients in the European Union and other countries worldwide.”
Under the terms of the Collaboration Agreement with Ipsen, Exelixis will receive a milestone payment of $40 million for the approval of the second-line treatment of HCC. This milestone will be paid by Ipsen within the next 70 days.
“Today’s European Commission approval of CABOMETYX provides a much-needed new option for HCC patients. Until now, physicians in Europe had only one approved therapy for the second-line treatment of this aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancer. We are proud to offer CABOMETYX as an innovative treatment that has been shown to extend survival in previously treated patients with HCC,” said Harout Semerjian, Chief Commercial Officer of Ipsen. “This new indication reinforces Ipsen’s commitment to improving patients’ lives through the expansion of the clinical benefit of CABOMETYX in the treatment of solid tumors.”
The EC approval is based on results from the CELESTIAL trial of CABOMETYX in patients with advanced HCC who received prior sorafenib. In this phase 3 pivotal trial, CABOMETYX demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival (OS) versus placebo. CABOMETYX is also approved in the European Union for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in adults who have received prior VEGF-targeted therapy and for previously untreated intermediate- or poor-risk advanced RCC.
On May 29, 2018, Exelixis announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for filing the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for CABOMETYX for previously treated advanced HCC and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act action date of January 14, 2019. An sNDA is an application to the FDA that, if approved, will allow a drug sponsor to make changes to a previously approved product label, including modifications to the indication.
