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Tabreca can now be prescribed at general hospitals in Korea
by Eo, Yun-Ho Feb 23, 2023 05:46am
The first MET-targeted anticancer drug, ‘Tabrecta’ can now be prescribed at hospitals in Korea. According to industry sources, Novartis Kore’s Tabrecta (capmatinib) passed the drug committees of the Big-5s general hospitals including Samsung Medical Center (SMC), Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), Sinchon Severance Hospital, and medical institutions including the National Cancer Center, Pusan National University Hospital, etc. MET mutation is a rare type of cancer that is present in approximately 3-4% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). No treatment option had been available in this type until now, which is why attention has been rising for new drugs in the area. Tabrecta targets c-MET and was first approved as a treatment for MET exon 14 skipping mutation in NSCLC in the US in May 2020. However, the issue of reimbursement still remains an obstacle. The company applied for reimbursement in November 2021 after receiving marketing authorization in Korea. However, the agenda was unable to pass review in both Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s Cancer Disease Review Committee meetings in August and last month this year. Whether Novartis will apply for and succeed in listing the drug for reimbursement remains to be seen. The drug’s efficacy was confirmed through the GEOMETRY mono-1 trial in 97 patients with METex14. In the pivotal GEOMETRY mono-1 trial, Tabrecta demonstrated a 68% objective response rate (ORR) and 41% ORR in treatment-naïve and previously treated patients, respectively. The duration of response (DoR) was 12.6 months and 9.7 months, respectively. Meanwhile, Novartis is also actively studying the combined use of Tabrecta with other therapies. In particular, its combined use is expected to be able to address the issue of resistance that patients acquire after treatment with EGFR inhibitors. As such, combined use of Tabrecta with AstraZeneca’s 3rd generation EGFR TKI Tagrisso (osimerbinib) is also underway. More specifically, the study will evaluate the treatment effect of Tabrecta+Tagrisso in comparison to platinum-based chemotherapy in NSCLC patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, T790M negative, MET-amplified who progressed following treatment with 1st/2nd generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) or Tagrisso. Professor Ji-Youn Han, Department of Hemato-oncology, National Cancer Center, said, “Patients who have MET amplification or overexpression have a very poor prognosis. In this sense, with the prompt introduction of MET inhibitors becoming ever important, the approval of Tabrecta, a treatment that demonstrated clear efficacy in MET exon 14 skipping mutation, holds great significance.”