The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Alymsys® (bevacizumab-maly), a biosimilar to Avastin® (bevacizumab).

The approval was based on data demonstrating that the biosimilar product and the reference product were highly similar, and that there were no clinically meaningful differences between the agents.

Alymsys is a VEGF inhibitor indicated for the treatment of certain patients with colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, glioblastoma, renal cell carcinoma, cervical cancer, and epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer.

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Specific indications for Alymsys include:

  • Metastatic colorectal cancer, in combination with intravenous fluorouracil-based chemotherapy for first- or second-line treatment.
  • Metastatic colorectal cancer, in combination with fluoropyrimidine-irinotecan- or fluoropyrimidine-oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for second-line treatment in patients who have progressed on a first-line bevacizumab product-containing regimen.
  • Unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel for first-line treatment.
  • Recurrent glioblastoma in adults.
  • Metastatic renal cell carcinoma in combination with interferon-alfa.
  • Persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer, in combination with paclitaxel and cisplatin or paclitaxel and topotecan.
  • Epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, in combination with paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or topotecan for platinum-resistant recurrent disease who received no more than 2 prior chemotherapy regimens.

Alymsys is not indicated for adjuvant treatment of colon cancer. Lack of efficacy of bevacizumab as an adjunct to standard chemotherapy for the adjuvant treatment of colon cancer was determined in 2 randomized, open-label, multicenter clinical studies.

Alymsys is supplied in single-dose vials containing 100 mg/4 mL and 400 mg/16 mL of bevacizumab-maly.

References

  1. Amneal achieves second US biosimilars approval with Alymsys® (bevacizumab-maly). News release. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Accessed April 14, 2022. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220413005966/en/Amneal-Achieves-Second-U.S.-Biosimilars-Approval-with-ALYMSYS%C2%AE-bevacizumab-maly
  2. Alymsys. Package insert. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 2022. Accessed April 14, 2022. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2022/761231s000lbl.pdf

This article originally appeared on MPR

Topics:

Brain Cancer Gastrointestinal Cancer Gynecologic Cancers Lung Cancer Renal Cell Carcinoma