US FDA approves Pfizer’s blood cancer therapy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted accelerated approval to Pfizer’s therapy for treating patients with a type of blood cancer that is difficult to treat, the company said.

The health regulator’s decision allows use of the therapy, branded as Elrexfio, in patients with multiple myeloma that is hard to treat or has come back after receiving four or more prior lines of certain classes of treatments.Elrexfio, or elranatamab, is administered under the skin and belongs to a class of therapies known as bispecific antibodies, that helps the body’s immune system to kill cancerous cells by bringing a cancer cell and an immune cell together.Elrexfio will be sold in the United States at a list price of $7,556 and $13,051 for the 44 mg and the 76 mg vial, respectively, Pfizer said.The list price of the therapy is expected to be $41,500 per month, the company said, adding that it expects the monthly price to be lower at about $26,000 as patients move to bi-weekly dosing.Pfizer has said the therapy could have more than $4 billion in potential peak revenue.

via Reuters