Vonjo (pacritinib) belongs to a class of anti-inflammatory drugs known as JAK inhibitors, and it will compete with Incyte Corp’s Jakafi and Bristol Myers’ Inrebic, which were authorised for treating Myelofibrosis in 2011 and 2019, respectively.
The U.S. Food and Medication Administration authorised CTI BioPharma Corp’s drug for treating adult patients with a kind of bone marrow cancer who also have a low blood platelet count on Monday. Vonjo (pacritinib) belongs to a class of anti-inflammatory drugs known as JAK inhibitors, and it will compete with Incyte Corp’s Jakafi and Bristol Myers’ Inrebic, which were authorised for treating Myelofibrosis in 2011 and 2019, respectively. Low platelet count, anaemia, weakness, exhaustion, and often swelling of the liver and spleen are all symptoms of myelofibrosis, which causes significant scarring in the bone marrow and impairs the body’s generation of blood cells.
Incyte aims to make $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion in sales in the United States alone, while Inrebic, which Bristol acquired after buying Celgene in 2019, made around $74 million in sales last year. According to JMP Securities analyst Benjamin Reni, “we currently model that the company might gain 30% market share, resulting in sales of around $390 million.” Reni estimates that CTI BioPharma will charge $260,000 per year for the treatment, a large premium over Jakafi’s $187,000 per year and a discount over Inrebic’s $275,184 per year.
“We are fully funded for commercial launch, following our loan and royalty agreements with DRI, and we look forward to offering VONJO to patients within 10 days,” CTI BioPharma Chief Executive Officer Adam R. Craig stated. The medicine was approved under priority, according to the company, and the approval prompted a $60 million payout from DRI Healthcare Trust. In a late-stage research, 29% of patients with severe thrombocytopenia who were treated twice daily with CTI BioPharma’s medication saw a reduction in spleen volume, compared to 3% of patients who received the best available therapy, which included Jakafi. In November, the US Food and Medicine Administration postponed its judgement on the drug by three months in order to analyse more data presented by the firm.
