Eisai files lenvatinib at FDA and EMA for treatment of Thyroid Cancer

Eisai announced that it has submitted applications to the FDA and EMA for marketing approval of its novel in-house developed anticancer agent lenvatinib mesylate (lenvatinib) as a treatment for progressive radioiodine-refractory differentiated Thyroid Cancer (RR-DTC). An application seeking marketing approval of lenvatinib for the indication of thyroid cancer was submitted in Japan on June 26, 2014. Lenvatinib was granted Orphan Drug Designation for thyroid cancer in Japan, Europe and the U.S. Lenvatinib was also granted an accelerated assessment in Europe by the EMA, as it is a new medicine expected to be of major public health interest, particularly from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation.

Lenvatinib is an oral multiple receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor with a novel binding mode that selectively inhibits the kinase activities of several different RTKs including VEGFR, FGFR, PDGFR?, KIT and RET, involved in angiogenesis and tumor proliferation. This potentially makes lenvatinib a first-in-class treatment in thyroid cancer, especially given that it simultaneously inhibits the kinase activities of FGFR as well as VEGFR.

The applications submitted were based on a Phase III clinical study, known as the SELECT (Study of (E7080) LEnvatinib in Differentiated Cancer of the Thyroid) trial, which was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of lenvatinib in 392 patients with RR-DTC and radiographic evidence of disease progression within the prior 13 months (patients may have received more than 1 prior VEGFR-targeted therapies). The study was conducted by Eisai in cooperation with SFJ Pharma.