Janssen-Cilag International NV (Janssen) announced today that the
European Commission has approved the marketing authorisation for DACOGEN®
(decitabine) for the treatment of adult patients (age 65 years and
above) with newly diagnosed de novo or secondary acute myeloid leukaemia
(AML), according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification,
who are not candidates for standard induction chemotherapy. DACOGEN® also has Orphan Drug designation for the
treatment of AML.
The data in support of the marketing authorization is based on the Phase III DACO-016 trial that compared decitabine to a patient’s choice with physician advice of either supportive care or low-dose cytarabine in the treatment of older patients with AML. The analysis of the protocol-specified results demonstrated an increase of 54 percent in median overall survival in patients taking decitabine (7.7 months for decitabine patients, compared to 5.0 months for patients in the comparator arm; HR=0.85, 95 percent CI: 0.69 to 1.04, p=0.108). An updated analysis of mature survival data confirmed this strong trend for improved overall survival and provided clinically significant evidence of decitabine efficacy (HR=0.82; 95 percent CI: 0.68 to 0.99; nominal p=0.037).
Dr. Xavier G. Thomas of the Hospital Edouard Herriot in Lyon, France,
one of the lead DACO-016 investigators, comments: "AML is a
life-threatening disease that is very difficult to treat. DACOGEN®
is proven to offer a clinically relevant overall survival advantage
compared to standard therapies and has no major differences in safety.
This is wonderful news for older patients that may not be able to
tolerate standard induction therapy."