Astellas Pharma Inc. and Seagen Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filed two supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) submissions for PADCEV? (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) for review as part of the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program. The applications were granted Priority Review, with a target action date of August 17, 2021. The review of both applications will also be conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence.

The FDA's RTOR program aims to explore a more efficient review process to ensure that safe and effective treatments are available to patients as early as possible. Project Orbis provides a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology drugs among participating international partners. The first sBLA is based on the phase 3 EV-301 trial and seeks to convert PADCEV's accelerated approval to regular approval. The second sBLA, based on the pivotal trial EV-201's cohort 2, requests an expansion of the current indication to include patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have been previously treated with a programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor and are ineligible for cisplatin. Results from EV-301 were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Results from EV-301 and EV-201 cohort 2 were presented at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

"With our recent regulatory submissions, we intend to provide the highest level of clinical evidence supporting PADCEV use – overall survival data from a randomized phase 3 trial – and expand availability in multiple countries where there is unmet medical need," said Andrew Krivoshik, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Astellas.

"These FDA filings, along with regulatory submissions outside of the United States under our collaboration with Astellas, are important steps in our shared goal of bringing PADCEV to more patients with advanced urothelial cancer," said Roger Dansey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Seagen.

Health authorities in Australia and Canada will evaluate data from EV-301 and EV-201 for initial registrations under Project Orbis. In March, the companies announced regulatory submissions in Japan and the European Union.

Urothelial cancer is the most common type of bladder cancer (90 percent of cases) and can also be found in the renal pelvis (where urine collects inside the kidney), ureter (tube that connects the kidneys to the bladder) and urethra.1 Globally, approximately 573,000 new cases of bladder cancer and more than 212,000 deaths are reported annually.

In 2019, PADCEV received accelerated approval in the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1/L1 inhibitor and a platinum-containing chemotherapy before (neoadjuvant) or after (adjuvant) surgery or in a locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer setting. PADCEV is currently only approved for use in the U.S.