Moving Beyond JAK Inhibition for the Treatment of Myelofibrosis

Aaron T. Gerds, MD, MS, assistant professor in Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at the Cleveland Clinic, discusses available treatment options for patients with myelofibrosis and some of the agents that are currently under development, inching toward regulatory approval in the field of myelofibrosis.

For patients with myelofibrosis, a variety of FDA-approved therapies exist. Options for patients include ruxolitinib (Jakafi), fedratinib (Inrebic), pacritinib (Vonjo), and most recently, momelotinib (Ojjaara), which was approved in September 2023 for the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis.

The international, randomized, double-blind, controlled, phase 3 MOMENTUM trial (NCT04173494) served as the basis of the FDA approval of momelotinib for this patient population. Based on recent trials, including the MOMENTUM study, momelotinib will be a key therapy for patients who have anemia and who have been previously treated with a JAK inhibitor.

In addition, Gerds explains that new therapies are being developed that will potentially allow the space to move beyond just JAK inhibitors.

Transcription:

0:10 | Well this is first of a series of randomized phase 3 trials that are being completed in myelofibrosis. I myself, and many others in the field, expect the next couple of years to be a period of rapid growth and change. We already had a new drug approved, pacritinib, [as well as] momelotinib.

0:25 | We have pelabresib [CPI-0610] coming along in phase 3 trials and navitoclax [previously ABT-263] coming along with phase 3 trials and that tell us that all of these trials should be finishing in the next year or 2 and potentially moving us, even beyond JAK inhibitors for the space. So not only would we potentially have JAK inhibitors approved to treat patients, we may have therapeutics outside of JAK inhibitors to treat these patients, which will be just kind of a massive change in the field.