BRUKINSA® (zanubrutinib) Receives Marketing Authorization for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Marginal Zone Lymphoma (MZL) in Great Britain by MHRA

BRUKINSA® (zanubrutinib) Receives Marketing Authorization for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Marginal Zone Lymphoma (MZL) in Great Britain by MHRA

 

MHRA marketing authorizations follow recent European Commission marketing authorizations

 

BRUKINSA is the only treatment authorized for MZL in Great Britain

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., & BASEL, Switzerland & BEIJING, China – January 19, 2022 – BeiGene (NASDAQ: BGNE; HKEX: 06160; SSE: 688235), a global biotechnology company, today announced that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted marketing authorizations for BRUKINSA® (zanubrutinib) in Great Britain for both the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and the treatment of adult patients with marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) who have received at least one prior anti-CD20-based therapy.

 

“BRUKINSA is a highly selective BTK inhibitor that has demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements over the first generation of BTK inhibitor in relapsed CLL,” said Dr Renata Walewska, Department of Hematology, University Hospitals Dorset, Bournemouth, UK. “The authorization of BRUKINSA for MZL and CLL in Great Britain is a significant step forward for eligible patients and their physicians as there is no targeted treatment currently authorized for MZL patients other than chemoimmunotherapy, and it represents an alternative to current BTKi treatments for patients with CLL.”

 

The MHRA authorization for CLL is based on two global Phase 3 clinical trials: SEQUOIA (NCT03336333)[i], comparing BRUKINSA against bendamustine plus rituximab (BR) in patients with previously untreated CLL, and ALPINE (NCT03734016)[ii], comparing BRUKINSA against IMBRUVICA® in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL.

 

The MHRA authorization for MZL is based on results from the multicenter, global, single-arm, open-label, Phase 2 MAGNOLIA[iii] trial in patients with R/R MZL who received at least one anti-CD-20 based regimen.

 

“As a BTK inhibitor designed to maximize BTK occupancy and minimize off-target binding, we believe BRUKINSA presents a very promising treatment option for eligible patients with MZL and CLL.” said Mehrdad Mobasher, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer, Hematology at BeiGene.

 

“As we strive for delivering cancer medicines more quickly to more patients around the world, we are pleased with the progress we’ve made in bringing BRUKINSA to more eligible patients with hematological malignancies in Great Britain following these authorizations” added Dr. Robert Mulrooney, General Manager, UK & Ireland at BeiGene. 

 

Earlier this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), recommended BRUKINSA for the treatment of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia (WM) in adults who have had at least one treatment, only if bendamustine plus rituximab is also suitable. BRUKINSA has also been recommended by the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the treatment of adult patients with WM who have received at least one prior therapy, or in first-line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemoimmunotherapy.

 

BRUKINSA is currently authorized in the European Union, and Northern Ireland, as per rulings set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol, for the treatment of adult patients with WM who have received at least one prior therapy, or as the first-line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemoimmunotherapy; for the treatment of adult patients with CLL and for adult patients with MZL who have received at least one prior anti-CD20-based therapy.

 

About Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

A life-threatening cancer of adults, CLL is a type of mature B-cell malignancy in which abnormal leukemic B lymphocytes (a type of white blood cells) arise from the bone marrow and flood peripheral blood, bone marrow, and lymphoid tissues.[iv]^,[v] CLL is the most common type of leukemia in adults, accounting for about one-quarter of new cases of leukemia.[vi] In Europe, the estimated incidence is 4.92/100,000 persons per year.[vii]^,[viii]

 

About Marginal Zone Lymphoma

MZL is a group of ultra-rare, slow growing B-cell malignancies that begin in the marginal zones of lymph tissue.[ix] Epidemiological data from Europe is limited, but the incidence rate of MZL is estimated to range between 20 and 30 persons per million per year.[x],[xi],[xii] There are three different subtypes of MZL: extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, or mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), which is most common; nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, which develops in the lymph nodes and is rare; and splenic marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, which develops in the spleen, bone marrow, or both, and is the rarest form of the disease.[xiii]

 

About BRUKINSA

BRUKINSA is a small-molecule inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) discovered by BeiGene scientists that is currently being evaluated globally in a broad clinical program as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies to treat various B-cell malignancies. BRUKINSA was specifically designed to deliver targeted and sustained inhibition of the BTK protein by optimizing bioavailability, half-life, and selectivity. With differentiated pharmacokinetics compared to other approved BTK inhibitors, BRUKINSA has been demonstrated to inhibit the proliferation of malignant B-cells within a number of disease-relevant tissues.

BRUKINSA is supported by a broad clinical program which includes more than 4,700 subjects in 35 trials in more than 30 geographies. To date, BRUKINSA is approved in over 60 markets, including the United States, China, the European Union, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

 

About BeiGene

BeiGene is a global biotechnology company that is developing and commercializing innovative and affordable oncology medicines to improve treatment outcomes and access for far more patients worldwide. With a broad portfolio, we are expediting development of our diverse pipeline of novel therapeutics through our internal capabilities and collaborations. We are committed to radically improving access to medicines for far more patients who need them. Our growing global team of more than 9,000 colleagues spans five continents, with administrative offices in Cambridge, U.S.; Basel, Switzerland; and Beijing, China. To learn more about BeiGene, please visit www.beigene.com and follow us on Twitter at @BeiGeneGlobal.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws, including statements regarding the potential for BRUKINSA to provide clinical benefit to patients with CLL or R/R MZL, the future development, regulatory filing and approval, commercialization, and market access of BRUKINSA in Great Britain and other markets, the potential commercial opportunity for BRUKINSA, and BeiGene’s plans, commitments, aspirations, and goals under the heading “About BeiGene.” Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including BeiGene's ability to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of its drug candidates; the clinical results for its drug candidates, which may not support further development or marketing approval; actions of regulatory agencies, which may affect the initiation, timing, and progress of clinical trials and marketing approval; BeiGene's ability to achieve commercial success for its marketed medicines and drug candidates, if approved; BeiGene's ability to obtain and maintain protection of intellectual property for its medicines and technology; BeiGene's reliance on third parties to conduct drug development, manufacturing, and other services; BeiGene’s limited experience in obtaining regulatory approvals and commercializing pharmaceutical products and its ability to obtain additional funding for operations and to complete the development and commercialization of its drug candidates and achieve and maintain profitability; and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BeiGene’s clinical development, regulatory, commercial, manufacturing, and other operations, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in BeiGene’s most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in BeiGene's subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and BeiGene undertakes no duty to update such information unless required by law.

 

Investor Contact

Kevin Mannix

+1 240-410-0129

ir@beigene.com

 

Media Contact

Maryline Iva

+41 616 852 090

media@beigene.com

 

 

 

 

 

[i] Tam CS, Robak T, Ghia P, et al. Zanubrutinib monotherapy for patients with treatment naive chronic lymphocytic leukemia and 17p deletion. Haematologica. 2020;106(9):2354-2363. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

pubmed/33054121.

[ii] A study of zanubrutinib (BGB-3111) versus ibrutinib in participants with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. ClinicalTrials.gov. Accessed September 25, 2022. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03734016.

[iii] Opat S, Tedeschi A, Linton K, et al. The MAGNOLIA Trial: Zanubrutinib, a next-generation bruton tyrosine kinase

inhibitor, demonstrates safety and efficacy in relapsed/refractory marginal zone lymphoma. Clin Cancer Res. Published online September 15, 2021. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432. CCR-21-1704.

[iv] National Cancer Institute. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. Cancer Stat Facts: Leukemia —Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Accessed December, 2022. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/clyl.html.  

[v] American Cancer Society. What is chronic lymphocytic leukemia? Updated May 10, 2018. Accessed December 8, 2022. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia/about/what-is-cll.html. 

[vi] Yao Y, Lin X, Li F, Jin J, Wang H. The global burden and attributable risk factors of chronic

lymphocytic leukemia in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019: analysis based on the

global burden of disease study 2019. Biomed Eng Online. 2022 Jan 11;21(1):4. doi:

10.1186/s12938-021-00973-6. PMID: 35016695; PMCID: PMC8753864.

[vii] Miranda-Filho, A., et al., Epidemiological patterns of leukaemia in 184 countries: a population-based study. The Lancet Haematology, 2018. 5(1): p. e14-e24.

[viii] Sant, M., et al., Incidence of hematologic malignancies in Europe by morphologic subtype: results of the HAEMACARE project. Blood, 2010. 116(19): p. 3724-34.

[ix]Annals of Oncology, Marginal Zone Lymphomas: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, January 6, 2020.

[x] Cerhan, J.R. and T.M. Habermann, Epidemiology of Marginal Zone Lymphoma. Ann Lymphoma, 2021.

[xi] Smith, A., et al., Lymphoma incidence, survival and prevalence 2004-2014: sub-type analyses from the UK's Haematological Malignancy Research Network. Br J Cancer, 2015. 112(9): p. 1575-84.

[xii] Maynadie, M., et al., Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma: French Registries Population-Based Treatment and Survival Analyses (2002-2014). Blood, 2020. 136.

[xiii] Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Marginal Zone Lymphoma. Available at: https://www.lls.org/research/marginal-zone-lymphoma-mzl.