The FDA recently approved a new ORAL therapy, Rezurock (belumosudil) from Kadmon Pharmaceuticals, with an indication for adult and pediatric patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (chronic GVHD).
There are about 14,000 patients with GVHD in the U.S. each year, and between 7,000 and 10,000 of them need systemic therapy. Roughly 60% of those patients have already tried and failed on two or more prior therapies.
Kadmon plans to launch Rezurock in late August at a monthly ‘bargain’ price of $15,500 per 30-count bottle….. that’s $186,000 annually.
Given the relatively small US patient population and cost, Kadmon has decided to launch this new therapy into limited distribution. Onco360 has announced that it will be a limited distribution partner.
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FDA approves Belumosudil for chronic graft-versus-host disease
On July 16, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved belumosudil (Rezurock, Kadmon Pharmaceuticals, LLC), a kinase inhibitor, for adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older with chronic graft-versus-host disease (chronic GVHD) after failure of at least two prior lines of systemic therapy.
Efficacy was evaluated in KD025-213 (NCT03640481), a randomized, open-label, multicenter dose-ranging trial that included 65 patients with chronic GVHD who were treated with belumosudil 200 mg taken orally once daily.
The main efficacy outcome measure was overall response rate (ORR) through Cycle 7 Day 1 where overall response included complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) according to the 2014 criteria of the NIH Consensus Development Project on Clinical Trials in Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease. The ORR was 75% (95% CI: 63, 85); 6% of patients achieved a CR, and 69% achieved a PR. The median time to first response was 1.8 months (95% CI: 1.0, 1.9). The median duration of response, calculated from first response to progression, death, or new systemic therapies for chronic GVHD, was 1.9 months (95% CI: 1.2, 2.9). In patients who achieved response, no death or new systemic therapy initiation occurred in 62% (95% CI: 46, 74) of patients for at least 12 months since response.
The most common adverse reactions (≥ 20%), including laboratory abnormalities, were infections, asthenia, nausea, diarrhea, dyspnea, cough, edema, hemorrhage, abdominal pain, musculoskeletal pain, headache, phosphate decreased, gamma glutamyl transferase increased, lymphocytes decreased, and hypertension.
The recommended dosage of belumosudil is 200 mg taken orally once daily with food.
This review was conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence. Project Orbis provides a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology drugs among international partners. For this review, FDA collaborated with Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, Health Canada, Switzerland’s Swissmedic, and the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
This review used the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program, which streamlined data submission prior to the filing of the entire clinical application, and the Assessment Aid, a voluntary submission from the applicant to facilitate the FDA’s assessment. The FDA approved this application 6 weeks ahead of the FDA goal date.
This application was granted priority review and breakthrough therapy designation. A description of FDA expedited programs is in the Guidance for Industry: Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions-Drugs and Biologics.
