ABRAXANE(R) Approved For Marketing In Japan For Breast Cancer

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals
Article Date: 27 Jul 2010 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Abraxis BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABII), a fully integrated, global biotechnology company, announced that Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has received approval from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to market ABRAXANE® IV Infusion 100 mg, Paclitaxel Injection (Suspension with Albumin), for use in the treatment of breast cancer. The New Drug Application (J-NDA) for ABRAXANE was filed with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2008.

In 2005, Abraxis entered into a license agreement with Taiho Pharmaceutical, a leading company within the Otsuka Holdings Group, under which Abraxis granted to Taiho the exclusive rights to market and sell ABRAXANE in Japan. Abraxis and Taiho are also developing ABRAXANE in Japan for the treatment of lung and gastric cancer and other solid tumors. "The approval to market ABRAXANE in Japan is a major step forward to providing breast cancer patients with a new treatment option," said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Executive Chairman of Abraxis BioScience. "Our partner Taiho is working diligently to make the necessary final arrangements to launch ABRAXANE later this year. We commend their accomplishments and the tremendous cooperative efforts of our team and look forward to working closely with them so that ABRAXANE is widely and readily available to patients." With the approval in Japan, ABRAXANE is now approved in 40 countries. There are approximately 50,000 cases of breast cancer in Japan.

About ABRAXANE®

ABRAXANE is a solvent-free chemotherapy treatment option for metastatic breast cancer which was developed using Abraxis BioScience's proprietary nab® technology platform. This protein-bound chemotherapy agent combines paclitaxel with albumin, a naturally-occurring human protein. By wrapping the albumin around the active drug, ABRAXANE can be administered to patients at higher doses, delivering higher concentrations of paclitaxel to the tumor site than solvent-based paclitaxel. ABRAXANE is currently in various stages of investigation for the treatment of the following cancers: expanded applications for metastatic breast, non-small cell lung, malignant melanoma, pancreatic and gastric.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ABRAXANE for Injectable Suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) (albumin-bound) in January 2005 for the treatment of breast cancer after failure of combination chemotherapy for metastatic disease or relapse within six months of adjuvant chemotherapy. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline unless clinically contraindicated.

About nab®-Driven Chemotherapy

Abraxis BioScience has developed a proprietary nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab) technology which leverages albumin nanoparticles for the active and targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics to the tumor. This nab-driven chemotherapy provides a new paradigm for penetrating the blood-stroma barrier to reach the tumor cell. The proposed mechanism of delivery of this nab-driven chemotherapy is thought to be by targeting a previously unrecognized tumor-activated, albumin-specific biologic pathway with a nanoshell of the human blood protein albumin. This nano-shuttle system is believed to activate an albumin-specific (Gp60) receptor-mediated transcytosis path through the cell wall of proliferating tumor cells, using caveolin-1 activated caveolar transport. Once in the stromal micro-environment, the albumin-bound drug may be preferentially localized by a second albumin-specific binding protein, SPARC, a protein secreted into the stroma by tumor cells. The resulting collapse of stroma surrounding the tumor cell may thus enhance the delivery of the nab-chemotherapeutic to the intracellular core of the tumor cell itself.

Important Safety Information

The use of ABRAXANE has not been studied in patients with hepatic or renal dysfunction. In the randomized controlled trial, patients were excluded for baseline serum bilirubin >1.5 mg/dL or baseline serum creatinine >2 mg/dL. ABRAXANE can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Women of childbearing potential should be advised to avoid becoming pregnant while receiving treatment with ABRAXANE.

Men should be advised to not father a child while receiving treatment with ABRAXANE. It is recommended that nursing be discontinued when receiving ABRAXANE therapy.

ABRAXANE contains albumin (human), a derivative of human blood. Caution should be exercised when administering ABRAXANE concomitantly with known substrates or inhibitors of CYP2C8 and CYP3A4.

ABRAXANE therapy should not be administered to patients with metastatic breast cancer who have baseline neutrophil counts of less than 1,500 cells/mm3. It is recommended that frequent peripheral blood cell counts be performed on all patients receiving ABRAXANE. Patients should not be retreated with subsequent cycles of ABRAXANE until neutrophils recover to a level >1,500 cells/mm3 and platelets recover to a level >100,000 cells/mm3 In the case of severe neutropenia (<500 cells/mm3 for 7 days or more) during a course of ABRAXANE therapy, a dose reduction for subsequent courses is recommended.

Sensory neuropathy occurs frequently with ABRAXANE. If grade 3 sensory neuropathy develops, treatment should be withheld until resolution to grade 1 or 2 followed by a dose reduction for all subsequent courses of ABRAXANE.

Severe cardiovascular events possibly related to single-agent ABRAXANE occurred in approximately 3% of patients in the randomized trial. These events included chest pain, cardiac arrest, supraventricular tachycardia, edema, thrombosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism, and hypertension.

In the randomized metastatic breast cancer study, the most important adverse events included alopecia (90%), neutropenia (all cases 80%; severe 9%), sensory neuropathy (any symptoms 71%; severe 10%), asthenia (any 47%; severe 8%), myalgia/arthralgia (any 44%; severe 8%), anemia (all 33%; severe 1%), infections (24%), nausea (any 30%; severe 3%), vomiting (any 18%; severe 4%), diarrhea (any 27%; severe <1%), and mucositis (any 7%; severe <1%).

Other adverse reactions have included ocular/visual disturbances (any 13%; severe 1%), fluid retention (any 10%; severe 0%), hepatic dysfunction (elevations in bilirubin 7%, alkaline phosphatase 36%, AST [SGOT] 39%), renal dysfunction (any 11%; severe 1%), thrombocytopenia (any 2%; severe <1%), hypersensitivity reactions (any 4%; severe 0%), cardiovascular reactions (severe 3%), and injection site reactions (<1%). During postmarketing surveillance, rare occurrences of severe hypersensitivity reactions have been reported with ABRAXANE.

Source:
Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Abraxis BioScience, Inc.

• Additional
• References
• Citations