The following is a message from the Director of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence, Dr. Richard Pazdur

On January 25, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration approved tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak, Immunocore Limited), a bispecific gp100 peptide-HLA-directed CD3 T cell engager, for HLA-A*02:01-positive adult patients with unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma. 

Efficacy was evaluated in IMCgp100-202 (NCT03070392), a randomized, open-label, multicenter trial of 378 patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. Patients were required to be HLA-A*02:01 genotype positive identified by a central assay. Patients were excluded if prior systemic therapy or localized liver-directed therapy were administered. Prior surgical resection of oligometastatic disease was permitted. Patients with clinically significant cardiac disease or symptomatic, untreated brain metastases were excluded. 

Patients were randomized (2:1) to receive tebentafusp-tebn (N=252) or investigator’s choice (N=126) of either pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, or dacarbazine. Tebentafusp-tebn was administered weekly by intravenous infusion at 20 mcg on day 1, 30 mcg on day 8, 68 mcg on day 15 and every subsequent week until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The main efficacy outcome measure was overall survival (OS). An additional efficacy outcome was investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS) per RECIST 1.1. Median OS was 21.7 months (95% CI: 18.6, 28.6) for patients treated with tebentafusp-tebn and 16 months (95% CI: 9.7, 18.4) in the investigator’s choice arm (HR=0.51, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.71, p<0.0001) PFS was 3.3 months (95% CI: 3, 5) for those receiving tebentafusp-tebn and 2.9 months (95% CI: 2.8, 3) in the investigator’s choice arm (HR=0.73, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.94, p=0.0139). 

The most common adverse reactions (≥30%) were cytokine release syndrome, rash, pyrexia, pruritus, fatigue, nausea, chills, abdominal pain, edema, hypotension, dry skin, headache, and vomiting. The most common laboratory abnormalities (≥50%) were decreased lymphocyte count, increased creatinine, increased glucose, increased aspartate aminotransferase, increased alanine aminotransferase, decreased hemoglobin, and decreased phosphate.

The recommended tebentafusp-tebn dose administered intravenously is:

• 20 mcg on day 1,
• 30 mcg on day 8,
• 68 mcg on day 15, and
• 68 mcg once weekly thereafter

View full prescribing information for Kimmtrak. 

This review was conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence. Project Orbis provides a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology drugs among international partners. For this review, FDA collaborated with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Health Canada, and the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The application reviews may be ongoing at the other regulatory agencies. 

This review used the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program, which streamlined data submission prior to the filing of the entire clinical application, and the Assessment Aid, a voluntary submission from the applicant to facilitate the FDA’s assessment. 

This application was granted priority review and orphan designation. A description of FDA expedited programs is in the Guidance for Industry: Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions-Drugs and Biologics.

Healthcare professionals should report all serious adverse events suspected to be associated with the use of any medicine and device to FDA’s MedWatch Reporting System or by calling 1-800-FDA-1088.

For assistance with single-patient INDs for investigational oncology products, healthcare professionals may contact OCE’s Project Facilitate at 240-402-0004 or email OncProjectFacilitate@fda.hhs.gov.

• FDA: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• NCI: Coronavirus: What People With Cancer Should Know
• CDC: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Follow the Oncology Center of Excellence on Twitter @FDAOncology. 

Please visit the FDA Hematology/Oncology (Cancer) Approvals & Safety Notifications webpage for a list of current and past approvals.