AbbVie Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to investigational telisotuzumab vedotin (Teliso-V) for the treatment of patients with advanced/metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) wild type, nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with high levels of c-Met overexpression whose disease has progressed on or after platinum-based therapy. The FDA's BTD program is intended to expedite the development and review of medicines with preliminary clinical evidence that indicate that the investigational treatment may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints. Despite advances in treatment, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in both men and women in the U.S. and throughout the world.

It is the most common cancer in males and the third most common cancer in females worldwide, with incidence rates (per 100,000) of 31.5 and 14.6, respectively.2 Approximately 85% of lung cancers are classified as NSCLC.3 Patients whose disease progresses after standard of care therapies, including prior platinum, have limited treatment options and poor prognosis. This BTD designation is supported by data from LUMINOSITY (Study M14-239), an ongoing Phase 2 study designed to identify the target NSCLC populations that overexpress c-Met best suited for Teliso-V monotherapy in the second line or third line setting, and then to expand the groups to further evaluate efficacy in the selected populations. The primary endpoint is overall response rate (ORR) per central review in patients with = 12 weeks follow-up.

Among patients with EGFR WT nonsquamous NSCLC, ORR was 53.8% in the c-Met high group and 25.0% in the c-Met intermediate group at a previously reported interim analysis. Teliso-V is also being evaluated in combination with osimertinib in the ongoing Phase 1 study M14-237 in patients with previously treated c-Met overexpressing NSCLC. In addition, it will be further evaluated as monotherapy in patients with previously treated c-Met overexpressing NSCLC in the randomized Phase 3 study TeliMET NSCLC-01 (Study M18-868).

Teliso-V is an investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting c-Met, a receptor tyrosine kinase that is overexpressed in tumors including NSCLC. Teliso-V is not approved by any regulatory authority and its safety and efficacy have not been established. Currently there are no approved cancer therapies specifically for patients with c-Met overexpressing NSCLC.