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de Rojas T, Chiodin D, Pearson ADJ, Heenen D, Adamson P, Caron H, Vassal G. Rescuing Drugs That are Discontinued in Adult Oncology Development for the Benefit of Children and Adolescents With Cancer - An ACCELERATE Multistakeholder Consensus. Clin Pharmacol Ther 2024; 115:36-41. [PMID: 37885401 DOI: 10.1002/cpt.3088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Better therapies for childhood cancer remain an unmet need to improve the dismal prognosis of certain malignancies and to reduce the burden of toxicity. Rescuing discontinued or shelved drugs for children, adolescents, and young adults is a strategy to identify new uses for approved or investigational medicines outside the scope of their original medical indication. Our proposed multistakeholder consensus focuses on the development of innovative, patent-protected targeted agents, sourced from previously shelved or discontinued programs that have the potential to provide significant benefit to underserved patient populations, with unmet medical needs. There are several challenges to continuing/rescuing drugs for pediatric oncology development, which include the lack of information for decision making, corporate strategy considerations underlying the decision to invest in pediatric development, and the contracting and technology transfer complexities required to enable divestment and subsequent development. The multistakeholder approach for drug development has the advantage of conveying a consensus among academia, patient advocates, and importantly industry itself. We propose three areas of action to facilitate rescuing potentially beneficial drugs for children and adolescents with cancer: (i) initiatives to provide information to companies considering developing these drugs and a standards framework; (ii) incentives both in Europe and in the United States to encourage companies to develop pediatric-only drugs, with the reform of the EU Pharmaceutical Legislation posing an important opportunity; and (iii) communication of the issues to all stakeholders. Ultimately, this will benefit children and adolescents with cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Davy Chiodin
- Day One Biopharmaceuticals, Brisbane, California, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Gilles Vassal
- ACCELERATE, Brussels, Belgium
- Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, Villejuif, France
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Pearson ADJ, Scobie N, Norga K, Ligas F, Chiodin D, Burke A, Minard-Colin V, Adamson P, Marshall LV, Balakumaran A, Benettaib B, Bhargava P, Bollard CM, Bolotin E, Bomken S, Buechner J, Burkhardt B, Caron H, Copland C, Demolis P, Egorov A, Farhan M, Zugmaier G, Gross T, Horton-Taylor D, Klapper W, Lesa G, Marcus R, Miles RR, Nottage K, Pacaud L, Ricafort R, Schrappe M, Sterba J, Vezan R, Weiner S, Kim SY, Reaman G, Vassal G. ACCELERATE and European Medicine Agency Paediatric Strategy Forum for medicinal product development for mature B-cell malignancies in children. Eur J Cancer 2019; 110:74-85. [PMID: 30772656 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2019.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2019] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Paediatric Strategy Forums have been created by the multistakeholder organisation, ACCELERATE, and the European Medicines Agency to facilitate dialogue between all relevant stakeholders and suggest strategies in critical areas of paediatric oncology drug development. As there are many medicines being developed for B-cell malignancies in adults but comparatively few in children with these malignancies, a Paediatric Strategy Forum was held to discuss the best approach to develop these products for children. It was concluded that as current frontline therapy is highly successful, despite associated acute toxicity, de-escalation of this or substitution of presently used drugs with new medicines can only be undertaken when there is an effective salvage regimen, which is currently not available. Therefore priority should be given to developing treatment for patients with relapsed and refractory mature B-cell lymphomas. The consensus of the clinicians attending the meeting was that CAR T-cells, T-cell engagers and antibody drug conjugates (excluding those with a vinca alkaloid-like drug) presently have the greatest probability of providing benefit in relapse in view of their mechanism of action. However, as producing autologous CAR T-cells currently takes at least 4 weeks, they are not products which could be quickly employed initially at relapse in rapidly progressing mature B-cell malignancies but only for the consolidation phase of the treatment. Global, industry-supported, academic-sponsored studies testing compounds from different pharmaceutical companies simultaneously should be considered in rare populations, and it was proposed that an international working group be formed to develop an overarching clinical trials strategy for these disease groups. Future Forums are planned for other relevant paediatric oncologic diseases with a high unmet medical need and relevant molecular targets.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Franca Ligas
- Paediatric Medicines Office, Product Development Scientific Support Department, European Medicines Agency, London, UK
| | | | - Amos Burke
- Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge, UK
| | | | | | - Lynley V Marshall
- Paediatric Drug Development, Children and Young People's Unit, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; Divisions of Clinical Studies and Cancer Therapeutics, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK
| | | | | | | | - Catherine M Bollard
- Centre for Cancer and Immunology Research, Children's National Health System, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
| | | | - Simon Bomken
- Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, UK
| | - Jochen Buechner
- Department of Paediatric Hematology and Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Norway
| | - Birgit Burkhardt
- Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and BMT, University Hospital Münster, Germany
| | | | | | | | - Anton Egorov
- Centre for Therapeutic Innovation in Oncology, Servier, France
| | - Mahdi Farhan
- Debiopharm International SA, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | | | - Giovanni Lesa
- Paediatric Medicines Office, Product Development Scientific Support Department, European Medicines Agency, London, UK
| | | | - Rodney R Miles
- University of Utah, Department of Pathology, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | | | | | - Rosanna Ricafort
- Oncology Clinical Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, NJ, USA
| | | | - Jaroslav Sterba
- Pediatric Oncology Department, University Hospital Brno, School of Medicine Masaryk University, Brno, Regional Centre for Applied Molecular Oncology, Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, ICRC Brno, St. Anna University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic
| | | | - Susan Weiner
- Children's Cause for Cancer Advocacy, Washington DC, USA
| | | | - Gregory Reaman
- Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, MD, USA
| | - Gilles Vassal
- Department of Clinical Research, Gustave Roussy, Paris-Sud University, Paris, France
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