Janssen Pharma bags breakthrough designation for niraparib in prostate cancer

New Delhi: The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (JnJ) announced recently that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for niraparib, an orally-administered poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with BRCA1/2 gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have received prior taxane chemotherapy and androgen receptor (AR)-targeted therapy.

A Breakthrough Therapy Designation is granted to expedite the development and regulatory review of an investigational medicine that is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening condition. The criteria for Breakthrough Therapy Designation require preliminary clinical evidence that demonstrates the drug may have substantial improvement on at least one clinically significant endpoint over available therapy.

BRCA1/2 mutations are the most common DNA-repair gene defects (DRD) in patients with mCRPC. Patients with a DRD in BRCA1/2 are at an elevated risk for both prostate cancer occurrence and more aggressive disease.

Niraparib is an orally-administered selective PARP inhibitor that is currently being studied by Janssen for the treatment of patients with prostate cancer. In April 2016, Janssen entered a worldwide (except Japan) collaboration and license agreement with TESARO, Inc., for exclusive rights to niraparib in prostate cancer. In the U.S., niraparib is indicated for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in a complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.9 Niraparib is currently marketed as ZEJULA by TESARO, an oncology-focused business within GSK, devoted to providing transformative therapies to people facing cancer.

"Niraparib is a PARP inhibitor that we believe may help address an important unmet need for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have mutations in DNA-repair genes," said Kiran Patel, M.D., Vice President, Clinical Development, Solid Tumors, Janssen Research & Development, LLC. "We are pleased with the FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation as we continue the clinical development of niraparib, and we look forward to working with the agency in our continued focus and commitment to bring new advancements to patients diagnosed with prostate cancer."

The Breakthrough Therapy Designation is based on data from the GALAHAD study, a Phase 2, multicenter, open-label clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of niraparib in the treatment of adult patients with mCRPC and DRD who had received treatment with next-generation androgen-receptor targeting therapies and docetaxel. Data from the Phase 2 GALAHAD study were recently presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Annual Congress as a late-breaking abstract.

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer is a form of prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and keeps growing even when the amount of testosterone in the body is reduced to very low levels. The most common metastatic sites are bones, followed by distant lymph nodes, liver and thorax.6 Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men worldwide. More than one million people around the world are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.

Also Read: JnJ to pay $20.4 million to settle opioid lawsuits with two Ohio counties