I'm Doctor Robert Rifkin, I'm a medical oncologist hematologist in Denver, Colorado, at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and part of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute and the Myeloma Executive Committee.
So at this ASH, I'm excited to be a participant in three of the abstracts that are being presented. The first one that probably has the most attention would be an update on the results of the DREAMM-7 trial. As the audience knows, DREAMM-7 had a brand new antibody drug conjugate called Belantamab. The real name is too long to say more than once. But belantamab was unique because it was a BCMA target, which was new, and it was an antibody drug conjugate.
So it was you would strike at the target, and then the warhead would deploy and kill the myeloma cell. Unfortunately, as it was developed, it developed a complication which was an off-target effect and perhaps not fully anticipated, which were ocular adverse events, and they were confined to the cornea, but they could be pretty severe and disabling. So people would have visual impairment to where they couldn't drive, they couldn't read, and there was some pain and discomfort that went with it.
So a lot of what you'll see in the DREAMM studies and other belantamab studies, as we've now adjusted the dose and schedule. So that's quite manageable. And even at a low dose in people with a deep response, you may only have to give it 3 or 4 times a year and nothing else. That would be a big advance. In the DREAMM-7 and DREAMM-8 studies, it did satisfy their overall endpoints for overall and progression-free survival, but that didn't show up in the initial analysis. And that plus the ocular toxicity was initially withdrawn from the market.
And it'll be refiled soon. And I think it'll have a definite role in giving BCMA exposure to myeloma patients that don't have ready access to either CAR-T or bispecific antibodies. So it's a drug that's making a comeback like not some others in oncology had a better dose and schedule.
HealthTree • December 17, 2024