Bayer has announced that its collaboration partner Loxo Oncology, a biopharmaceutical company based in Stamford, CT, has initiated the submission of a rolling New Drug Application (NDA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for larotrectinib. The NDA is being submitted for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic solid tumors with NTRK-fusion proteins in adult and pediatric patients who require systemic therapy and who have either progressed following prior treatment or who have no acceptable alternative treatments.
Bayer and Loxo Oncology are jointly developing larotrectinib, an investigational compound being studied globally for the treatment of patients with cancers harboring tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) gene fusions, which are genetic alterations present across a wide range of tumors resulting in uncontrolled TRK signaling and tumor growth. Loxo Oncology expects to complete the NDA submission in early 2018.
“The initiation of the rolling submission in the US by Loxo Oncology is an important milestone, as it brings us one step closer to potentially being able to offer a much needed new treatment option for patients with TRK fusion cancers in the near future,” said Robert LaCaze, Member of the executive committee at Bayer AG’s Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of the Oncology Strategic Business Unit.
Larotrectinib is a potent, oral and selective investigational new drug in clinical development for the treatment of patients with cancers that harbor abnormalities involving the tropomyosin receptor kinases (TRKs). Growing research suggests that the NTRK genes, which encode for TRKs, can become abnormally fused to other genes, resulting in growth signals that can lead to cancer in many sites of the body. In an analysis of 55 RECIST-evaluable TRK fusion adult and pediatric patients, larotrectinib demonstrated an 80 percent investigator-assessed overall response rate (ORR) and a 75 percent independently-reviewed confirmed ORR, across many different types of solid tumors. Larotrectinib has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation, Rare Pediatric Disease Designation and Orphan Drug Designation by the US FDA.
In November 2017, Loxo Oncology and Bayer entered into an exclusive global collaboration for the development and commercialization of larotrectinib and LOXO-195, a next-generation TRK inhibitor. Loxo Oncology leads worldwide development and US regulatory activities. Bayer leads ex-US regulatory activities and worldwide commercial activities. In the US, Loxo Oncology and Bayer will co-promote the products.
TRK fusions are chromosomal abnormalities that occur when one of the NTRK genes (NTRK1, NTRK2, NTRK3) becomes abnormally connected to another, unrelated gene (e.g. ETV6, LMNA, TPM3). This abnormality results in uncontrolled TRK signaling that can lead to cancer. TRK fusions occur rarely but broadly in various adult and pediatric solid tumors, including appendiceal cancer, breast cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, colorectal cancer, GIST, infantile fibrosarcoma, lung cancer, mammary analogue secretory carcinoma of the salivary gland, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, and various sarcomas. TRK fusions can be identified through various diagnostic tests, including targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS), immunohistochemistry (IHC), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH).