Chugai ends licence for PharmaMar’s lurbinectedin

As a compensation, PharmaMar received a payment of €3m from Chugai who had announced it will terminate the commercialisation agreement for the alkylating DNA minor groove binder by April 2019. According to the mutual early termination agreement, PharmaMar regains all its rights for Zepsyre^® in Japan with immediate effect.

This January, lurbinectedin missed to reach the primary endpoint of progression-free survival for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients vs standard chemotherapy in a Phase III trial. However, PharmaMar says the transcription inhibitor is safer than chemotherapy. Lurbinectin is further developed in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and breast cancer.

In SCLC, its global registration trial ATLANTIS (n=600), which combines lurbinectedin with doxorubicin vs standard therapy is about to finalise recruitment in July 2018. Results for the primary endpoint of overall survival are expected by the second half of 2019. According to data presented at ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting) earlier this month, lurbinectedin montherapy showed an overall survival benefit of 11.8 months.

Zepsyre® (lurbinectedin, PM1183) is a semi-synthetic second-generation analogue of trabectedin (Yondelis). Known previously as ecteinascidin-743, or ET-743, trabectedin is derived from the Caribbean sea squirt, Ecteinascidia turbinata.