Seattle Genetics has announced that its two-drug therapy, co-developed with Takeda Pharmaceutical, cut tumour size by at least half in 75% of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in a clinical trial.
SGN-35 uses antibodies to target cancer cells and deliver a cancer-killing agent, achieving the results in 102 patients suffering advanced lymphoma that other treatments had failed to cure.
Patients received an injection of the medication, calibrated to their weight, every three weeks for up to 48 weeks with the aim of achieving at least a partial response, which would see the tumour size cut in half.
Seattle Genetics plans to submit a marketing application to the US Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2011, while approval would see it become the first of a new generation of cancer-beating drugs to combine antibodies, according to Bloomberg.
Both Seattle Genetics and the Japan-based Takeda will seek accelerated approval for the drug on the back of the trial, claiming that it caters for an unmet medical need.
