Pfizer’s Elrexfio (elranatamab) has been accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) for use as a monotherapy in adults with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
The BCMA-directed bispecific antibody will now be available on the NHS in Scotland on an interim basis to treat patients who have received at least three prior therapies, including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor, and an anti-CD38 antibody, and demonstrated disease progression on the last therapy.
Affecting around 475 people in Scotland every year, multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell.
The disease often affects several areas of the body and follows a relapsing-remitting pattern, meaning it usually returns after a period of remission and further treatment is required.
Administered as a subcutaneous injection, Elrexfio is designed to help the immune system recognise and kill cancer cells by binding to both BCMA, which is highly expressed in multiple myeloma, and CD3 receptors found on the surface of T cells.
The SMC’s decision, which is subject to ongoing evaluation and future reassessment, was supported by positive results from the mid-stage MagnetisMM-3 study.
Pfizer recently shared detailed overall survival (OS) results from the trial, demonstrating a median OS of 24.6 months in cohort A, which enrolled patients without prior BCMA-directed therapy.
After more than two years of follow-up, the overall response rate for patients on Elrexfio was 61%, with responses deepening over time, and the median duration of response was not reached.
Ruhe Chowdhury, oncology medical director, Pfizer UK, said the company is “delighted that the SMC has accepted [Elrexfio] for use within NHS Scotland”.
“Making the treatment available in this way will ensure timely access for eligible patients whose options are dwindling as their disease progresses and becomes refractory to successive therapies,” Chowdhury added.
The authorisation comes just over a month after Pfizer’s haemophilia B gene therapy Durveqtix (fidanacogene elaparvovec) was granted conditional marketing authorisation by the European Commission to treat adults with severe and moderately severe cases of the rare bleeding disorder.