Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that it has received a second Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its ALK inhibitor, Alecensa (alectinib). The latest BTD was granted for the treatment of adult patients with advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have not received prior treatment with an ALK inhibitor.

“The J-ALEX study that supports the second Breakthrough Designation for Alecensa showed superior efficacy versus the standard of care, crizotinib, in Japanese people with advanced ALK-positive disease,” said Sandra Horning, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. “The decision by the FDA to grant a second breakthrough therapy designation is recognition of the clinically meaningful improvement in efficacy and safety that Alecensa brings to the care of people with advanced ALK-positive lung cancer who have not received prior treatment with an ALK inhibitor.”

This second breakthrough therapy designation is based on the results of the open-label, randomised phase III J-ALEX study, which were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in June. J-ALEX compared the efficacy and safety of Alecensa with crizotinib in 207 Japanese people with ALK-positive, advanced or recurrent NSCLC who either had not been treated with chemotherapy or had received one prior line of chemotherapy. Results from the study demonstrated that Alecensa reduced the risk of disease worsening or death (progression-free survival, PFS) by 66% compared to crizotinib, whilst maintaining a favourable tolerability and safety profile consistent with that observed in previous studies.

The FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy Designation is designed to expedite the development and review of medicines intended to treat serious diseases and to help ensure patients have access to them through FDA approval as soon as possible. Alecensa received its first FDA BTD in June 2013 for people with ALK-positive NSCLC whose disease progressed on treatment with crizotinib.

Alecensa is currently available in the US and Israel to ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC patients who have progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib, and in Japan to ALK-positive unresectable, recurrent or advanced NSCLC patients. In addition, an ongoing global, randomised phase III trial called ALEX is comparing Alecensa to Xalkori as an initial (first-line) treatment for people with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC.