Genmab, AbbVie blood cancer drug combo cuts risk of progression or death in late-stage study

By Sahil Pandey

Oct 5 (Reuters) – Danish biotech firm Genmab and US drugmaker AbbVie said on Monday their combination treatment for patients newly diagnosed with a type of lymphoma reduced the risk of disease progression or death in a late-stage study.

US-listed shares of Genmab were up about 1.04% in extended trading. AbbVie’s shares were flat.

• The study tested epcoritamab in combination with R-CHOP in newly diagnosed patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma

• The combination reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 51% in newly diagnosed patients compared with R-CHOP alone, the companies said

• Barclays analyst Emily Field said the result was a strong validation of epcoritamab in frontline DLBCL, which represents the largest commercial opportunity for the drug

• Epcoritamab, jointly developed by Genmab and AbbVie, is an immune-based therapy that helps the body’s T cells attack cancer cells, while R-CHOP is currently offered as the standard treatment for those with DLBCL

• The companies said the trial is the first late-stage study of a bispecific antibody combination to significantly improve progression-free survival — how long patients live without their cancer worsening — in first-line DLBCL

• They said the combination’s safety profile was generally consistent with the known safety profiles of epcoritamab and R-CHOP

• Epcoritamab has not yet been approved for patients who have just been diagnosed and have not received prior treatment

(Reporting by Sahil Pandey in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)