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PharmaMar, a Spanish biopharmaceutical company with 40 years of experience, has announced that its treatment Zepzelca® (lurbinectedin), in combination with atezolizumab (Tecentriq®), has been approved by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) as a first-line maintenance treatment for adult patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
This approval as a first-line maintenance therapy means that the drug is administered after the initial induction treatment for those patients who achieve stable disease or better, in order to maintain the response achieved. In addition to Taiwan, this first-line maintenance combination has recently been approved for the same indication in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Israel, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru joining the United States and Switzerland, the first countries to have approved it for this indication.
The Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) is currently under review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as in other countries worldwide.
PharmaMar commercialises its products outside Europe through agreements with strategic partners, with the aim of facilitating patient access worldwide to its innovative oncology therapies. Specifically, the company collaborates with Lotus Pharmaceutical in Taiwan; Immedica in Oman and the United Arab Emirates; in Israel with Megapharm and Adium Pharma in Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador.
Furthermore, lurbinectedin as a monotherapy is approved as a second-line treatment, that is, after disease progression during or following platinum-based chemotherapy, in 22 countries.
Small cell lung cancer accounts for about 15% of lung cancer cases and is characterised by its aggressive behavior, and an early tendency to spread.
