A New Option Being Explored for Myelofibrosis

EP: 1.Myelofibrosis Types and Presentations

EP: 2.Molecular Targets and Transplant Considerations in Myelofibrosis

EP: 3.Treatment Options for Patients with Myelofibrosis: Pacritinib, Fedratinib, and Ruxolitinib

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EP: 4.A New Option Being Explored for Myelofibrosis

EP: 5.Approaching Treatment Selection and Sequencing in Myelofibrosis

EP: 6.Unmet Needs and Promising New Therapies in Myelofibrosis

Transcript:

Stephen Oh, MD, PhD: Momelotinib, which is pending potential FDA approval, is a drug that is a JAK1/JAK2/ACVR1 inhibitor. It is based on its activity against ACVR1 and earlier studies that were conducted in which patients with anemia, including transfusion dependent patients were treated with momelotinib. It was clearly demonstrated that momelotinib provides anemia benefit, that a subset of patients treated with momelotinib can achieve transfusion independence. And it was confirmed that momelotinib does have activity against ACVR1 and does have an impact on hepcidin levels. All this pretty clearly ties anemia benefit to momelotinib.

This has been corroborated by the phase 3 MOMENTUM study, which is currently ongoing, which also demonstrates anemia benefit with momelotinib. Therefore, this is a drug that can provide both anemia benefit as well as spleen and symptom benefit in patients with myelofibrosis.

The updated results from MOMENTUM that were presented this year's ASH [meeting] further support that and show with extended follow-up that durable responses are achieved with momelotinib. This is very encouraging. Further analyses presented at this year's ASH also demonstrate long-term safety with momelotinib that looks very positive. This is a drug that most of us in the field are expecting to be approved soon, and therefore will be a good option in particular patients with myelofibrosis.

As far as quality of life and the various JAK inhibitors, there are certainly some distinctions with each of these agents, but overall, each of these drugs quite clearly provides improvement in quality of life. This is related to improvement in symptoms, at least in part related to improvement in anemia. All these things together result in improved quality of life. And in this field, while we certainly are focused on a few different aspects of disease response, including spleen response and a wide variety of symptoms, we would like to see improvement in anemia. Ideally, with any treatment, we would like to see that it impacts survival, but it's quite clear as a class that these drugs do provide benefit in terms of quality of life.

Transcript edited for clarity.