Basel, 28 April 2021 – Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 10 to 1 in favour of maintaining accelerated approval of Tecentriq® (atezolizumab) for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC, bladder cancer) who are not eligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy and whose tumours express high levels of PD-L1 (PD-L1–stained tumour-infiltrating immune cells covering ≥5 percent of the tumour area) as determined by an FDA-approved test or are not eligible for any platinum-containing chemotherapy regardless of PD-L1 status. Today’s ODAC meeting is part of an industry-wide review of accelerated approvals with confirmatory trials that have not met their primary endpoint(s) and have yet to gain regular approvals. The advisory committee provides the FDA with independent opinions and recommendations from outside medical experts though the recommendations are not binding. The FDA has not announced when it will make its final decision for Tecentriq in this indication.
“Today’s positive vote reaffirms that Tecentriq fills a significant unmet need for people with previously untreated metastatic bladder cancer, many of whom cannot tolerate standard of care chemotherapy and need additional options,” said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Roche’s Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. “Having now received positive ODAC recommendations in both bladder cancer and triple-negative breast cancer, we will continue to work with the FDA on next steps for Tecentriq in these indications.”
The FDA’s Accelerated Approval Program allows conditional approval of a medicine that fills an unmet medical need for a serious condition, with specific postmarketing requirements (PMRs) to confirm the clinical benefit and convert to regular approval.
Tecentriq was granted accelerated approval in 2017 for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or mUC who are not eligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy based on the positive overall response rate and duration of response results from the IMvigor210 study. Tecentriq’s indication was subsequently focused on PD-L1 high patients, who would benefit the most based on findings from the IMvigor130 study in 2018. This Phase III trial is the designated PMR for the first-line mUC indication and met its co-primary endpoint of progression-free survival. IMvigor130 continues for overall survival (OS). Roche looks forward to sharing the final OS results once available.
Roche remains committed to following the science to better understand cancer, including which patients may benefit most from immunotherapy treatment. Tecentriq has already demonstrated its transformational role in areas of high medical need and is a first in class medicine approved for particularly difficult to treat cancers. Tecentriq’s extensive development programme includes multiple ongoing and planned Phase III studies across different lung, genitourinary, skin, breast, gastrointestinal, gynaecological, and head and neck cancers. This includes studies evaluating Tecentriq both alone and in combination with other medicines, as well as studies in metastatic, adjuvant and neoadjuvant settings.
Yesterday, on 27 April, the ODAC voted 7 to 2 in favour of maintaining the accelerated approval of Tecentriq in combination with nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of people with PD-L1-positive, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
