Ofatumumab has been approved for extended treatment of patients who are in complete or partial response after at least two lines of therapy for recurrent or progressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Jan. 19.
Ofatumumab (Arzerra Injection, Novartis Pharmaceuticals) was previously approved for treatment-naive patients with CLL for whom fludarabine-based therapy was considered inappropriate and for patients with CLL refractory to fludarabine and alemtuzumab.
Approval of the new indication was based on the results of a randomized, open-label trial that found improved progression-free survival with ofatumumab as compared with observation in patients whose disease had a complete or partial response after at least two lines of prior therapy, the FDA said in a press release .
In the study, 238 patients were randomized to ofatumumab and 236 to observation. Patients in the ofatumumab arm had received a range of two to five prior therapies. The median progression-free survival was significantly longer with ofatumumab at 29.4 months (95% confidence interval, 26.2-34.2) than with observation at 15.2 months (95% CI, 11.8-18.8).
Of patients treated with ofatumumab, 33% reported serious adverse reactions. The most common were pneumonia, pyrexia, and neutropenia (including febrile neutropenia).
The recommended dose and schedule for ofatumumab therapy is 300 mg by intravenous infusion on day 1 followed by 1,000 mg on day 8, and then 7 weeks later, and then every 8 weeks thereafter for up to a maximum of 2 years.
Full prescribing information is available at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2016/125326s062lbl.pdf .
