SHANGHAI, June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, "Everest", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products to address critical unmet needs in Asia Pacific markets, announced today that China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan or SG) for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease. This is the first drug that Everest has obtained New Drug Application (NDA) approval to launch in China.  In May 2021, the NMPA accepted Everest's NDA for Trodelvy with Priority Review designation.

"We are extremely excited for Trodelvy's NDA approval in China as Trodelvy is a first-in-class Trop-2-directed antibody-drug conjugate. This marks a significant milestone for Everest with our first drug approved in our home market, where we hope to continue to bring innovative therapies to people with urgent medical needs," said Kerry Blanchard, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Everest Medicines. "We want to extend our gratitude to the NMPA and the Center for Drug Evaluation for the Priority Review and fast approval."

"The NMPA approval of Trodelvy will provide an important and new treatment option for Chinese women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer – a very aggressive and challenging to treat form of the disease. We would like to thank the investigators and patients who participated in the clinical trials for making this possible," said Yang Shi, Chief Medical Officer for Oncology/Immunology at Everest Medicines. "We will continue to work with our partner, Gilead, to advance clinical research of Trodelvy across multiple tumor types as well as earlier lines of therapy."

In November 2021, Everest announced topline results from its Phase 2b EVER-132-001 study of Trodelvy in 80 people, which met its primary endpoint with a 38.8% overall response rate (ORR). The results were consistent with those from the global Phase 3 ASCENT study, thus showing similar efficacy and safety in the Chinese population. 

"Patients with triple-negative breast cancer are in urgent need of new and effective treatment options. I have witnessed the introduction of sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) into China, and led the registrational clinical study in the nation," said Professor Binghe Xu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the National New Drug (Anti-Cancer) Clinical Research Centre who is the principal investigator of Trodelvy's registrational study in China. "I am glad that sacituzumab govitecan has shown similar positive results in the domestic clinical study as those from the global trial. As a clinician, I hope that this new drug can reach patients as early as possible to save more lives."

"There is a significant unmet need among metastatic triple-negative breast cancer patients in China who are waiting eagerly for a better treatment option to extend their lives," said Kevin Guo, Chief Commercial Officer at Everest Medicines. "With the Trodelvy approval in China, we will rapidly expand our sales team to launch this novel product in the fourth quarter this year and bring it to as many hospitals and patients in China as possible."

In addition to mainland China and Singapore where Trodelvy has been approved, Everest is closely coordinating with regulatory bodies in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong to review its applications for Trodelvy for adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic TNBC who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease.

• In December 2021, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) of South Korea accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) for Trodelvy. Trodelvy was previously granted Fast Track Designation and Orphan Drug Designation in South Korea.
• In December 2021, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration accepted submission of NDA for Trodelvy. Trodelvy was previously granted Pediatric and Rare Severe Disease Priority Review Designation in Taiwan.
• In January 2022, the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore approved the Company's NDA for Trodelvy for the treatment of second-line and later-line metastatic TNBC.
• In March 2022, an NDA was submitted to the Department of Health, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, for Trodelvy for the treatment of second-line metastatic TNBC.

Conference Call Information

A live conference call will be hosted on June 13, 2022 at 8:00 AM Beijing Time (June 12, 2022 at 8:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time). 

The live webcast of the conference call will be available at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=VjYhqoAG.   

To ask questions during the Q&A section, participants shall access the call by dialing the following numbers:

A replay will be available shortly after the call and can be accessed by visiting the Company's website at http://www.everestmedicines.com. 

About Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)

TNBC is the most aggressive type of breast cancer and accounts for approximately 15% of all breast cancers. The median age of breast cancer diagnoses tends to be younger in Asian than western countries, and the percentage of the TNBC molecular subtype has been increasing in the past 10 years. TNBC cells do not have estrogen and progesterone hormone receptors and have limited or no human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression. Due to the nature of TNBC, effective treatment options are extremely limited compared with other breast cancer types. TNBC has a higher chance of recurrence and metastases than other breast cancer types. The average time to metastatic recurrence for TNBC is approximately 2.6 years compared with 5 years for other breast cancers, and the relative five-year survival rate is much lower. Among women with metastatic TNBC, the five-year survival rate is 12%, compared with 28% for those with other types of metastatic breast cancer.

About Trodelvy® (Sacituzumab Govitecan)

Trodelvy is a first-in-class Trop-2 directed antibody-drug conjugate. Trop-2 is a cell surface antigen highly expressed in multiple tumor types, including in more than 90% of breast and bladder cancers. Trodelvy is intentionally designed with a proprietary hydrolyzable linker attached to SN-38, a topoisomerase I inhibitor payload. This unique combination delivers potent activity to both Trop-2 expressing cells and the microenvironment.

Trodelvy is approved in more than 35 countries, with multiple additional regulatory reviews underway worldwide, for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic TNBC who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease. Trodelvy is also approved in the U.S. under the accelerated approval pathway for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer (UC) who have previously received a platinum-containing chemotherapy and either programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor.

Trodelvy is also being developed for potential investigational use in other TNBC and metastatic UC populations, as well as a range of tumor types where Trop-2 is highly expressed, including hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) metastatic breast cancer, metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC), head and neck cancer, and endometrial cancer.

Under a licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc., Everest Medicines has exclusive rights to develop, register, and commercialize Trodelvy for all cancer indications in Greater China, South Korea, and certain Southeast Asian countries. In October 2020, Trodelvy was included in the updated 2020 China Guidelines for the Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer and was also included in the updated 2022 Guidelines for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology in April.

*The TRODELVY trademark is used under license from Gilead Sciences, Inc.

About Everest Medicines

Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Asian markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record of high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and operations both in China and with leading global pharmaceutical companies. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of eleven potentially global first-in-class or best-in-class molecules, many of which are in late-stage clinical development. The Company's therapeutic areas of interest include oncology, autoimmune disorders, cardio-renal diseases and infectious diseases. For more information, please visit its website at www.everestmedicines.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements, including descriptions regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company or its officers with respect to the business operations and financial condition of the Company, which can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, or other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company and are unforeseeable. Therefore, the actual results may differ from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and assumptions, such as future changes and developments in our business, competitive environment, political, economic, legal and social conditions. The Company or any of its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors or representatives has no obligation and does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this news release, except as required by law.

SOURCE Everest Medicines