(Reuters) -British drugmaker GSK said on Monday its blood cancer drug Blenrep, when used as a second-line treatment in patients with myeloma, met its primary goal of progression-free survival in a late-stage trial.
In September, EU’s drug regulator recommended against renewing the conditional marketing authorisation for the drug, which GSK stopped selling in the U.S. last year at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US FDA).
Blenrep had failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage study last November, designed to show it was better than an existing treatment on the market.
The drug belongs to a category of treatments called antibody-drug conjugates, which are engineered antibodies that bind to tumour cells and then release cell-killing chemicals.
GSK said Blenrep, when combined with bortezomib plus dexamethasone, significantly extended the time to disease progression or death in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma – a type of blood cancer.
Blenrep made about 10 million pounds ($12.46 million) in sales for the company in the third quarter.
($1 = 0.8025 pounds)
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
