The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted marketing authorizations for BeiGene’s BRUKINSA (zanubrutinib) in Great Britain for both the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and the treatment of adult patients with marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) who have received at least one prior anti-CD20-based therapy.
“BRUKINSA is a highly selective BTK inhibitor that has demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements over the first generation of BTK inhibitor in relapsed CLL,” said Dr Renata Walewska, Department of Hematology, University Hospitals Dorset, Bournemouth, UK.
“The authorization of BRUKINSA for MZL and CLL in Great Britain is a significant step forward for eligible patients and their physicians as there is no targeted treatment currently authorized for MZL patients other than chemoimmunotherapy, and it represents an alternative to current BTKi treatments for patients with CLL.”
The MHRA authorization for CLL is based on two global Phase 3 clinical trials: SEQUOIA (NCT03336333), comparing BRUKINSA against bendamustine plus rituximab (BR) in patients with previously untreated CLL, and ALPINE (NCT03734016), comparing BRUKINSA against IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL.
The MHRA authorization for MZL is based on results from the multicenter, global, single-arm, open-label, Phase 2 MAGNOLIA trial in patients with R/R MZL who received at least one anti-CD-20 based regimen.
“As a BTK inhibitor designed to maximize BTK occupancy and minimize off-target binding, we believe BRUKINSA presents a very promising treatment option for eligible patients with MZL and CLL,” said Mehrdad Mobasher, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer, Hematology at BeiGene.
“As we strive for delivering cancer medicines more quickly to more patients around the world, we are pleased with the progress we’ve made in bringing BRUKINSA to more eligible patients with hematological malignancies in Great Britain following these authorizations,” added Dr. Robert Mulrooney, general manager, UK & Ireland at BeiGene.
Earlier this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), recommended BRUKINSA for the treatment of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia (WM) in adults who have had at least one treatment, only if bendamustine plus rituximab is also suitable. BRUKINSA has also been recommended by the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the treatment of adult patients with WM who have received at least one prior therapy, or in first-line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemoimmunotherapy.
BRUKINSA is currently authorized in the European Union, and Northern Ireland, as per rulings set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol, for the treatment of adult patients with WM who have received at least one prior therapy or as the first-line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemoimmunotherapy; for the treatment of adult patients with CLL and for adult patients with MZL who have received at least one prior anti-CD20-based therapy.
