The European Medicines Agency review of sacituzumab govitecan for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

Sacituzumab govitecan (SG) is an antineoplastic agent which combines a humanized monoclonal antibody binding to trophoblast cell surface antigen-2 (Trop-2)-expressing cancer cells, linked with cytotoxic moiety SN-38 (govitecan) with topoisomerase I inhibitor action. On 22 November 2021, a marketing authorization valid through the European Union (EU) was issued under the European Medicines Agency (EMA)'s accelerated assessment program for SG as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, including at least one of them for advanced disease. The assessment was based on results from an open-label, randomized, phase III trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of SG versus treatment of physician's choice (TPC) in patients with mTNBC who received at least two prior treatments including at least one of them for advanced disease. The efficacy results in the overall population, based on mature data, showed a statistically significant improvement of SG over TPC in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The median PFS was 4.8 months versus 1.7 months [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.43, n = 529; 95% CI 0.35-0.54; P < 0.0001] and the median OS was 11.8 months versus 6.9 months (HR = 0.51, n = 529; 95% CI 0.41-0.62; P < 0.0001). The most common (>30%) side effects of SG were diarrhea, neutropenia, nausea, fatigue, alopecia, anemia, constipation and vomiting. The aim of this manuscript is to summarize the scientific review of the application leading to regulatory approval in the EU.

Safety learning from drugs of the same class: room for improvement.

This study was aimed at assessing the extent of safety learning from data pertaining to other drugs of the same class. We studied drug classes for which the first and second drugs were centrally registered in the European Union from 1995 to 2008. We assessed whether adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with one of the drugs also appeared in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) of the other drug, either initially or during the postmarketing phase. We identified 977 ADRs from 19 drug pairs, of which 393 ADRs (40.2%) were listed in the SPCs of both drugs of a pair. Of these 393 that were present in both SPCs of a drug pair, 241 (61.3%) were present when the drug entered the market and 152 (30.7%) appeared in the postmarketing phase. The mention of ADRs in the SPCs of both same-class drugs in the postmarketing phase was associated with type A ADRs, marketing in the same regulator country, a longer time interval between entry into the market by the two drugs, and an earlier date of ADR. Although there appears to be some degree of safety learning from same-class drugs, there is still room for improvement, possibly by increasing proactive risk management.