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GSK hailed progress for its withdrawn blood cancer drug Blenrep on Thursday, raising the prospect of the treatment returning to market after the drugmaker announced positive trial results.
Blenrep was approved in 2020 in the US as single treatment, but it was later withdrawn in 2022 after failing to beat other treatments in a confirmatory trial to treat a rare kind of blood cancer known as relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The drugmaker has since launched new trials to bring it back to market, combining it with other treatments.
GSK said it had seen “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” trial results for Blenrep, when used with another established treatment called BorDex to treat relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma — a blood cancer that returns or does not respond to treatment.
Blenrep in combination with BorDex significantly reduced the risk of death in a head-to-head trial with a standard treatment for the disease. Full data will be presented at a US haematology conference in December.
In February, the company said Blenrep and BorDex nearly tripled the length of time a patient lives without their cancer advancing, compared with the standard treatment.
GSK has filed for regulatory approvals across the world and the results will support those applications, with decisions due next year. If approved, the company expects peak sales of Blenrep of more than £3bn.
Shares in the UK drugmaker dipped 0.6 per cent in early trading in London.
