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TOKYO and BOTHELL, Wash. – February 12, 2021 -- Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., “Astellas”) and Seagen Inc. (Nasdaq:SGEN) today announced primary results from the phase 3 EV-301 trial comparing PADCEV® (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) to chemotherapy in adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who were previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy and a PD-1/L1 inhibitor. At the time of pre-specified interim analysis, patients who received PADCEV in the trial lived a median of 3.9 months longer than those who received chemotherapy. Median overall survival was 12.9 vs. 9.0 months, respectively (HR=0.70 [95 percent Confidence Interval (CI): 0.56-0.89], p=0.001). For patients in the PADCEV arm of the trial, maculopapular rash, fatigue and decreased neutrophil count were the most frequent Grade 3 or greater treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) occurring in more than 5 percent of patients.

Urothelial cancer is the most common type of bladder cancer and can also be found in the renal pelvis, ureter and urethra.1

The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented during the virtual scientific program of the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) (Abstract 393).

“Improving survival is especially meaningful in patients who have had their cancer progress following chemotherapy or other treatment,” said Daniel P. Petrylak, M.D., Professor of Medicine and of Urology, Yale Cancer Center, and corresponding author of the published study.

“Enfortumab vedotin is the first medicine to reduce the risk of death compared to chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have received a platinum-containing chemotherapy and an immunotherapy,” said Professor Thomas Powles, M.D., Director, Barts Cancer Centre, Queen Mary University of London, who presented results at ASCO GU.

Patients who received PADCEV in the trial also showed improvement in the following secondary endpoints:

• Median progression-free survival, which is the time without progression of cancer, was 5.6 months for PADCEV vs. 3.7 months for chemotherapy (HR=0.62 [95 percent CI: 0.51-0.75]; p<0.00001).
• Overall response rate, the percentage of patients with either complete or partial response, was 40.6 percent vs. 17.9 percent of patients in the chemotherapy arm (p<0.001).
• Disease control rate (DCR), which is the percentage of patients who have achieved complete response, partial response or had stable disease, was 71.9 percent for PADCEV and 53.4 percent for chemotherapy (p<0.001).

Other safety findings included:

• Rates of serious TRAEs were comparable between treatment arms (23 percent of patients receiving PADCEV vs. 23 percent receiving chemotherapy).
• Grade 3 or greater TRAEs were experienced by approximately 50 percent of patients in both study arms. Grade 3 or greater TRAEs occurring in more than 5 percent of patients receiving PADCEV were maculopapular rash (occurring in 7 percent of patients receiving PADCEV vs. 0 percent of patients receiving chemotherapy), fatigue (6 percent vs. 4.5 percent) and decreased neutrophil count (6 percent vs. 13 percent).

“Patients who received PADCEV lived longer than those who received chemotherapy – an important finding, especially in light of the high unmet need faced by people with advanced urothelial cancer,” said Andrew Krivoshik, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Astellas.

“Since its accelerated approval by the FDA in late 2019, physicians have adopted PADCEV into their practice, and these confirmatory results provide additional evidence of its benefit for people living with advanced bladder cancer,” said Roger Dansey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Seagen.

Results of EV-301 are expected to be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of March as the confirmatory trial following the drug's accelerated approval in 2019. The results of EV-301 will also be included in submissions to global health authorities.

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