Sandoz announced the European Commission (EC) has approved Rixathon (biosimilar rituximab) for use in Europe. Rixathon is approved for use in all indications of the reference medicine, MabThera.
"Today's approval of Rixathon represents a big win for patients in Europe with blood cancers or immunological diseases because it enables increased access to biologics. It also allows healthcare systems to redeploy resources to other areas of high need, particularly innovative therapies" Carol Lynch, Global Head, Biopharmaceuticals, Sandoz said. "Sandoz is committed to increasing patient access to biologic medicines, and Rixathon will be one of the five major launches we plan in the next four years. We have worked with care and passion towards this approval, and now is the time when we are bringing this medicine to healthcare professional and patients in Europe."
Rixathon is approved for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, as well as immunological diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and microscopic polyangiitis.
The EC approval was based on a comprehensive development program generating analytical, preclinical, and clinical - including pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) - data. The program demonstrated Rixathon matches its reference medicine in terms of safety, efficacy, and quality.
EC approval was based on a comprehensive development program, including analytical, preclinical, and clinical data, demonstrating biosimilarity of Rixathon to the reference medicine, MabThera. Clinical studies included:
The ASSIST-RA study, which demonstrated that Rixathon and its reference medicine have equivalent PK/PD profiles, with no clinically meaningful differences in safety, tolerability, or immunogenicity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
The ASSIST-FL study; a Phase III confirmatory efficacy and safety study. The study met its primary endpoint of equivalence in overall response rate (ORR) between Rixathon and the reference medicine after six months. Results also confirmed the comparable safety profile of the two medicines.