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Amgen Submits Supplemental New Drug Application For Kyprolis (Carfilzomib) In Relapsed Multiple Myeloma

Published: Jul 23, 2015 9:00 am

Filing Based on Data From Phase 3 Head-To-Head ENDEAVOR Study

Relapsed Multiple Myeloma Patients Treated With Kyprolis in Study Lived Twice as Long Without Disease Worsening

Amgen Submits Supplemental New Drug Application For Kyprolis (Carfilzomib) In Relapsed Multiple Myeloma Thousand Oaks, CA (Press Release) – Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced the sub­mission of a supple­mental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA) for Kyprolis® (car­filz­o­mib) for Injection to seek an expanded indi­ca­tion for the treat­ment of patients with a form of blood cancer, re­lapsed multiple myeloma, who have received at least one prior ther­apy. Kyprolis cur­rently has accelerated approval in the U.S. for the treat­ment of patients with re­lapsed multiple myeloma as a mono­ther­a­py.

The sNDA is based on data from the global Phase 3 ENDEAVOR trial. The ENDEAVOR study is the first of two head-to-head Phase 3 trials of Kyprolis versus Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib). Relapsed multiple myeloma patients treated with Kyprolis and dexa­meth­a­sone in the ENDEAVOR study lived twice as long without their disease worsening, demonstrating statistically and clin­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant superiority over Velcade (median pro­gres­sion-free survival [PFS] 18.7 months versus 9.4 months, HR=0.53, 95 per­cent CI, 0.44 – 0.65; p<0.0001).

"Submission of this new sNDA for Kyprolis is im­por­tant because if approved, it will mean more treat­ment options for patients with this serious disease. Multiple myeloma has historically been one of the most dif­fi­cult to treat diseases because of the in­her­ent complexities related to the recurring pattern of remission and re­lapse," said Sean E. Harper, M.D., exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent of Research and Development at Amgen. "The ENDEAVOR study showed that patients who had failed at least one prior ther­apy were half as likely to see their disease worsen if they received Kyprolis. This is yet another data set that illustrates Kyprolis' poten­tial to extend the time patients live without their disease progressing and im­prove the depth and duration of a response."

The Kyprolis com­bi­na­tion dem­onstrated superiority over the Velcade com­bi­na­tion for sec­ond­ary objectives of higher over­all response rate and lower neu­rop­athy events. Overall survival data are not yet mature and con­tinue to be monitored.

Treatment dis­con­tinu­a­tion due to adverse events and on-study deaths was com­parable be­tween the two arms. The rates of cardiac failure and renal failure for Kyprolis were com­parable to those observed in the Phase 3 ASPIRE study. In ENDEAVOR, the rates for cardiac and renal failure were higher in the Kyprolis arm versus the Velcade arm. There was also an in­­crease in the incidence of hyper­tension and dyspnea in the Kyprolis arm compared to Velcade in ENDEAVOR and than that observed in the ASPIRE study.

Based on the Phase 3 ASPIRE study Amgen con­tinues to work with the FDA on the related sNDA in the U.S. and with the European Union (EU) regu­la­tory author­i­ties for the Marketing Authorization Application for Kyprolis. Following poten­tial approval based on the ASPIRE study, Amgen plans to submit ENDEAVOR for poten­tial authori­za­tion in the EU.

Kyprolis Head-to-Head Studies

The ran­dom­ized ENDEAVOR (RandomizEd, OpeN Label, Phase 3 Study of Carfilzomib Plus DExa­methA­sone Vs Bortezomib Plus DexamethasOne in Patients With Relapsed Multiple Myeloma) trial of 929 patients eval­u­ated Kyprolis in com­bi­na­tion with dexa­meth­a­sone, versus Velcade with dexa­meth­a­sone in patients whose multiple myeloma has re­lapsed after at least one, but not more than three prior thera­peutic regi­mens. The pri­mary end­point of the trial was PFS, defined as the time from treat­ment initiation to disease pro­gres­sion or death.

Patients received Kyprolis as a 30-minute infusion along with dexa­meth­a­sone (20 mg). Administer Kyprolis at a starting dose of 20 mg/m2 in Cycle 1 on Days 1 and 2. If tolerated, escalate the dose to a target dose of 56 mg/m2 on Day 8 of Cycle 1. Patients were kept at 56 mg/m2 on days 9, 15 and 16 on a 28 day cycle. Patients who tolerated 56 mg/m2 in Cycle 1 were kept at this dose for sub­se­quent cycles on days 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16 on a 28 day cycle. Patients who received Velcade (1.3 mg/m2) with dexa­meth­a­sone (20 mg) were ad­min­is­tered Velcade sub­cu­tane­ously or in­tra­venously at the discretion of the investigator and in accordance with regu­la­tory approval of Velcade. More than 75 per­cent of the patients in the control arm received Velcade sub­cu­tane­ous­ly. This study was conducted at 235 sites world­wide. For in­­for­ma­tion about this trial, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov under trial identi­fi­ca­tion number NCT01568866.

Kyprolis is also being eval­u­ated in the CLARION study, a head-to-head Phase 3 multi­center, open-label, ran­dom­ized study in trans­plant-ineligible patients with newly diag­nosed multiple myeloma. The study is eval­u­ating the safety and efficacy of car­filz­o­mib, mel­phalan and pred­ni­sone versus bor­tez­o­mib, mel­phalan and pred­ni­sone. For in­­for­ma­tion about this trial, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov under trial identi­fi­ca­tion number NCT01818752.

About Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is the second most common hema­to­logic cancer.1 In the U.S., there are nearly 96,000 people living with, or in remission from, multiple myeloma.2 The esti­mated number of new cases of multiple myeloma in 2014 was more than 24,000 and the esti­mated number of deaths was 11,090.2

About Kyprolis® (car­filz­o­mib) for Injection

Kyprolis® (car­filz­o­mib) for Injection is indicated as a single agent for the treat­ment of patients with multiple myeloma who have re­ceived at least two prior ther­a­pies in­­clud­ing bor­tez­o­mib and an immuno­modu­la­tory agent and have dem­onstrated disease pro­gres­sion on or within 60 days of completion of the last ther­apy. Approval is based on response rate. Clinical benefit, such as im­prove­ment in survival or symp­toms, has not been verified.

Kyprolis is a prod­uct of Onyx Pharma­ceu­ticals, Inc. Onyx Pharma­ceu­ticals is a sub­sid­i­ary of Amgen and holds devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion rights to Kyprolis globally, excluding Japan. Kyprolis is also approved for use in Argentina, Israel, Mexico and Thailand. For more in­­for­ma­tion about Kyprolis, visit www.kyprolis.com.

Important Safety Information Regarding Kyprolis® (car­filz­o­mib) for Injection

This safety in­­for­ma­tion is specific to the current U.S. approved indi­ca­tion, which is based on Phase 2 studies.

Safety data have been eval­u­ated in 526 patients with re­lapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma who re­ceived single-agent Kyprolis. There were 37 deaths in the Phase 2 studies, or 7 per­cent of patients. The most common causes of death, other than disease pro­gres­sion, were cardiac (5 patients), end-organ failure (4 patients) and in­fec­tion (4 patients). Important warnings and precautions in­clude cardiac arrest, congestive heart failure, myo­cardial ischemia, pul­mo­nary hyper­tension, pul­mo­nary com­pli­ca­tions, infusion reac­tions, tumor lysis syn­drome, thrombo­cytopenia, hepatic toxicity and embryo-fetal toxicity.

Death due to cardiac arrest has occurred within a day of Kyprolis admin­istra­tion. Patients with New York Heart Association Class III and IV heart failure, myo­cardial infarction in the preceding 6 months and con­duc­tion ab­nor­mal­i­ties uncontrolled by medications were not eli­gible for the clin­i­cal trials. These patients may be at greater risk for cardiac com­pli­ca­tions.

Pulmonary arterial hyper­tension (PAH) was reported in 2 per­cent of patients treated with Kyprolis and was Grade 3 or greater in less than 1 per­cent of patients. Dyspnea was reported in 35 per­cent of patients enrolled in clin­i­cal trials. Grade 3 dyspnea occurred in 5 per­cent; no Grade 4 events and 1 death (Grade 5) was re­ported.

Infusion reac­tions, char­ac­ter­ized by a spectrum of systemic symp­toms in­­clud­ing fever, chills, arthralgia, myalgia, facial flushing, facial edema, vomiting, weakness, shortness of breath, hypo­­tension, syncope, chest tightness, or angina can occur im­medi­ately fol­low­ing or up to 24 hours after admin­istra­tion of Kyprolis. Ad­min­is­tra­tion of dexa­meth­a­sone prior to Kyprolis reduces the incidence and severity of reac­tions. Tumor lysis syn­drome (TLS) occurred fol­low­ing Kyprolis admin­istra­tion in <1 per­cent of patients. Patients with multiple myeloma and a high tumor burden should be con­sidered to be at greater risk for TLS.

Thrombocytopenia fol­low­ing Kyprolis admin­istra­tion resulted in a dose reduction in 1 per­cent of patients and dis­con­tinu­a­tion of treat­ment with Kyprolis in <1 per­cent of patients.

Cases of hepatic failure, in­­clud­ing fatal cases, have been reported (<1 per­cent). Kyprolis can cause ele­va­tions of serum transaminases and bilirubin.

Cases of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura/hemolytic uremic syn­drome (TTP/HUS) in­­clud­ing fatal out­come have been reported. Treatment with Kyprolis should be dis­con­tinued if signs and symp­toms of TTP/​HUS occur.

Cases of posterior reversible encephalopathy syn­drome (PRES) have been reported. Treatment with Kyprolis should be dis­con­tinued if PRES is sus­pected.

There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women using Kyprolis. Females of re­pro­duc­tive poten­tial should be advised to avoid becoming pregnant while being treated with Kyprolis.

The most common serious adverse reac­tions were pneu­monia, acute renal failure, pyrexia and congestive heart failure. The most common adverse reac­tions (incidence of 30 per­cent or greater) observed in clin­i­cal trials of patients with multiple myeloma were fatigue, anemia, nausea, thrombo­cytopenia, dyspnea, diarrhea and pyrexia. Serious adverse reac­tions were reported in 45 per­cent of patients.

Full pre­scrib­ing in­­for­ma­tion is avail­able at www.kyprolis.com.

About Amgen

Amgen is committed to unlocking the poten­tial of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by dis­covering, devel­op­ing, manu­fac­tur­ing and delivering inno­va­tive human thera­peutics. This ap­proach begins by using tools like ad­vanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and under­stand the fun­da­men­tals of human biology.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its biologics manu­fac­tur­ing expertise to strive for solu­tions that im­prove health out­comes and dramatically im­prove people's lives. A bio­technology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent bio­technology com­pa­nies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is devel­op­ing a pipe­line of medicines with break­away poten­tial.

For more in­­for­ma­tion, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release con­tains forward-looking state­ments that are based on the current ex­pec­ta­tions and beliefs of Amgen Inc. and its sub­sid­i­aries (Amgen) and are subject to a number of risks, un­cer­tain­ties and assump­tions that could cause actual results to differ ma­teri­ally from those described. All state­ments, other than state­ments of historical fact, are state­ments that could be deemed forward-looking state­ments, in­­clud­ing esti­mates of revenues, operating margins, capital ex­pen­di­tures, cash, other financial metrics, ex­pec­ted legal, arbitration, political, regu­la­tory or clin­i­cal results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reim­burse­ment activities and out­comes and other such esti­mates and results. Forward-looking state­ments involve sig­nif­i­cant risks and un­cer­tain­ties, in­­clud­ing those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) reports filed by Amgen Inc., in­­clud­ing Amgen Inc.'s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any sub­se­quent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Please refer to Amgen Inc.'s most recent Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K for addi­tional in­­for­ma­tion on the un­cer­tain­ties and risk factors related to Amgen's business. Unless other­wise noted, Amgen is providing this in­­for­ma­tion as of July 23, 2015, and expressly disclaims any duty to update in­­for­ma­tion con­tained in this news release.

No forward-looking state­ment can be guar­an­teed and actual results may differ ma­teri­ally from those Amgen projects. Discovery or identi­fi­ca­tion of new prod­uct can­di­dates or devel­op­ment of new indi­ca­tions for existing prod­ucts cannot be guar­an­teed and movement from concept to prod­uct is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guar­an­tee that any particular prod­uct can­di­date or devel­op­ment of a new indi­ca­tion for an existing prod­uct will be suc­cess­ful and become a commercial prod­uct. Further, pre­clin­i­cal results do not guar­an­tee safe and effective per­for­mance of prod­uct can­di­dates in humans. The complexity of the human body cannot be perfectly, or sometimes, even adequately modeled by computer or cell cul­ture systems or animal models. The length of time that it takes for Amgen and its partners to com­plete clin­i­cal trials and obtain regu­la­tory approval for prod­uct market­ing has in the past varied and Amgen ex­pec­ts similar variability in the future. Amgen develops prod­uct can­di­dates internally and through licensing col­lab­o­rations, part­ner­ships and joint ventures. Product can­di­dates that are derived from rela­tion­ships may be subject to disputes be­tween the parties or may prove to be not as effective or as safe as Amgen may have believed at the time of entering into such rela­tion­ship. Also, Amgen or others could identify safety, side effects or manu­fac­tur­ing problems with Amgen's prod­ucts after they are on the market. Amgen's business may be impacted by gov­ern­ment in­ves­ti­ga­tions, litigation and prod­uct liability claims. If Amgen fails to meet the compliance obli­ga­tions in the corporate integrity agree­ment be­tween Amgen and the U.S. gov­ern­ment, Amgen could become subject to sig­nif­i­cant sanctions. Amgen depends on third parties for a sig­nif­i­cant portion of its manu­fac­tur­ing capacity for the supply of certain of its current and future prod­ucts and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of its current prod­ucts and prod­uct can­di­date devel­op­ment.

In addi­tion, sales of Amgen's prod­ucts (including prod­ucts of Amgen's wholly-owned sub­sid­i­aries) are affected by the reim­burse­ment policies imposed by third-party payers, in­­clud­ing gov­ern­ments, private insurance plans and man­aged care providers and may be affected by regu­la­tory, clin­i­cal and guideline devel­op­ments and domestic and inter­na­tional trends to­ward man­aged care and health­care cost con­tainment as well as U.S. legislation affecting pharma­ceu­tical pricing and reim­burse­ment. Government and others' reg­u­la­tions and reim­burse­ment policies may affect the devel­op­ment, usage and pricing of Amgen's prod­ucts. In addi­tion, Amgen competes with other com­pa­nies with respect to some of its marketed prod­ucts as well as for the discovery and devel­op­ment of new prod­ucts. Amgen believes that some of its newer prod­ucts, prod­uct can­di­dates or new indi­ca­tions for existing prod­ucts, may face com­pe­ti­tion when and as they are approved and marketed. Amgen's prod­ucts may compete against prod­ucts that have lower prices, estab­lish­ed reim­burse­ment, superior per­for­mance, are easier to admin­ister, or that are other­wise competitive with its prod­ucts. In addi­tion, while Amgen and its partners routinely obtain patents for their prod­ucts and tech­nology, the protection of Amgen's prod­ucts offered by patents and patent appli­ca­tions may be chal­lenged, invalidated or circumvented by its com­pet­i­tors and there can be no guar­an­tee of Amgen's or its partners' ability to obtain or main­tain patent protection for Amgen's prod­ucts or prod­uct can­di­dates. Amgen cannot guar­an­tee that it will be able to produce commercially suc­cess­ful prod­ucts or main­tain the commercial success of its existing prod­ucts. Amgen's stock price may be affected by actual or perceived market oppor­tu­ni­ty, competitive position and success or failure of its prod­ucts or prod­uct can­di­dates. Further, the discovery of sig­nif­i­cant problems with a prod­uct similar to one of Amgen's prod­ucts that implicate an entire class of prod­ucts could have a ma­teri­al adverse effect on sales of the affected prod­ucts and on Amgen's business and results of operations. Amgen's efforts to integrate the operations of com­pa­nies it has acquired may not be suc­cess­ful. Amgen may ex­peri­ence dif­fi­culties, delays or unexpected costs and not achieve antic­i­pated cost savings from its recently announced restructuring plan. Amgen's business per­for­mance could affect or limit the ability of Amgen's Board of Directors to declare a dividend or their ability to pay a dividend or repurchase Amgen common stock.

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1. Dimopoulos, MA and Terpos E. Multiple Myeloma. Annals of Oncology 21 (Supplement 7): vii143–vii150, 2010.
2. Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Facts 2014-2015. Available at: http://www.lls.org/content/nationalcontent/resourcecenter/freeeducationmaterials/generalcancer/pdf/facts.pdf Accessed July 2015.

Source: Amgen.

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