GSK has shared positive headline results from a head-to-head study of its BCMA-targeting antibody-drug conjugate Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin) as a second-line and later treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
Approximately 176,000 new cases of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that develops in plasma cells in the bone marrow, are diagnosed globally each year.
Despite recent advances, GSK outlined that research into new therapies is needed as the disease often becomes refractory to available treatments.
The phase 3 DREAMM-8 trial has been evaluating the efficacy and safety of Blenrep compared to bortezomib, both given in combination with pomalidomide plus dexamethasone (PomDex).
Patients enrolled in the study who had relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, had been previously treated with at least one prior line of multiple myeloma therapy, including a lenalidomide-containing regimen and had documented disease progression during or after their most recent therapy.
The trial met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival, with the Blenrep regimen shown to significantly extend the time to disease progression or death versus bortezomib plus PomDex, an existing standard of care for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
A positive overall survival trend favouring the Blenrep combination was also observed at the time of analysis, GSK said, adding that the safety and tolerability of the combination was “broadly consistent” with the known safety profile of the individual agents.
The readout comes just one month after GSK announced positive results from the phase 3 DREAMM-7 trial evaluating Blenrep compared to daratumumab, both in combination with bortezomib plus dexamethasone (BorDex).
Blenrep plus BorDex demonstrated a 59% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death compared to the daratumumab combination, and GSK’s regimen also resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in all secondary efficacy endpoints, including a doubling of complete response rate.
Hesham Abdullah, senior vice president, global head oncology, research and development at GSK, said: “The results seen in both DREAMM-7 and DREAMM-8 provide strong clinical evidence of the robust efficacy shown with [Blenrep] in use with standard of care combinations. We now look forward to discussing this data with regulators.
“If approved, we believe these combinations have the potential to redefine the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and advance the standard of care.”