EMA grants gilteritinib regulatory review for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory FLT3-positive acute myeloid leukemia

On 1 March 2019, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted a marketing authorization application and granted regulatory review to gilteritinib, a potent, oral fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) FLT3-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML).¹ This comes after gilteritinib received FDA approval for the treatment of patients with FLT3-positive R/R AML in November 2018.

The marketing authorization application is based on the results from the randomized phase III ADMIRAL study (NCT02421939), which is assessing the efficacy of oral gilteritinib vs salvage chemotherapy in adult patients with FLT3-positive R/R AML. Interim results from the trial demonstrated a complete remission/complete remission with partial hematologic recovery rate of 21%.² The results from the ADMIRAL trial are to be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019, Atlanta, USA, in March 2019.

According to the drug manufacturers, the marketing authorization application for gilteritinib to the EMA received accelerated assessment, which could result in a shorter timeframe for approval from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.