Pharmacyclics Granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation from FDA for Ibrutinib Monotherapy

Pharmacyclics PCYC announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to the investigational oral agent ibrutinib monotherapy for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and to ibrutinib monotherapy for the treatment of patients with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM), both of which are B-cell malignancies. The Breakthrough Therapy Designation is intended to expedite the development and review of a potential new drug for serious or life-threatening diseases where "preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development."[i]  The designation of a drug as a Breakthrough Therapy was enacted as part of the 2012 Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. Pharmacylics, together with Janssen, is working with the FDA to determine the implications of this Breakthrough Therapy Designation to the ongoing and planned development and the filing requirements for the use of ibrutinib in patients with MCL and WM. The company expects to finalize the MCL filing prior to year end and will provide guidance on the WM See full press release