Pharmaceutical Business review

Celgene’s QUAZAR AML-001 trial of CC-486 meets primary and key secondary endpoints

Image: Celgene’s QUAZAR AML-001 trial of CC-486 meets primary and key secondary endpoints in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia. Photo: courtesy of skeeze from Pixabay.

The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of investigational therapy CC-486 as maintenance therapy in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who achieved first complete response (CR) or complete response with incomplete blood count recovery (CRi) with induction chemotherapy (with or without consolidation). The study demonstrated that maintenance treatment with CC-486 resulted in a highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival compared to placebo. The key secondary endpoint of relapse-free survival (RFS) also showed a statistically significant improvement.

CC-486 was well-tolerated and there were no unexpected safety events in QUAZAR AML-001. This phase 3 study enrolled 472 patients, randomized 1:1 to receive either oral CC-486 300mg or placebo once daily for 14 days of a 28-day cycle plus best supportive care until disease relapse.

“AML remains a deadly blood cancer where most patients are not curable and less than 30% of patients survive five years1,” said Jay Backstrom, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer for Celgene. “The CC-486 QUAZAR AML-001 study is the first phase 3 trial to demonstrate that the addition of maintenance therapy has the potential to extend overall survival in a broad population of patients with newly diagnosed AML who have achieved remission with induction chemotherapy.”

Data from QUAZAR AML-001 will be submitted to a future medical meeting. Celgene also plans regulatory submissions for CC-486 beginning in the first half of 2020.

CC-486 is an investigational compound and not approved for any use in any geography.

Source: Company Press Release