Kimlia, a treatment for blood cancer. Photo novatis
It is now possible to use patient-specific anticancer drugs in Korea that have excellent effects on blood cancer patients who are difficult to cure with existing treatments.
Novartis Korea’s’Kimriaju’ (Tisagen Rexel) received domestic approval. It is an anticancer drug that uses’chimeric antigen receptor T cells’ that select and attack cancer cells. Kimlia has previously been evaluated as a breakthrough designation in the United States.
Anticancer drug made from T cells in the patient’s body
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 7th that Novartis Korea has approved Kimria as a high-tech biopharmaceutical. This is the first in Korea to be licensed for related drugs. Kimlia strain uses chimeric antigen receptor T (T) cells. Unlike general anticancer drugs that used foreign substances, it is made by putting genetic information on the surface of tea cells (immune cells) obtained directly from patients so that specific antigens of cancer cells can be known. With this characteristic, when injected into the body, it only finds and attacks cancer cells.
Kimliaju has been confirmed to be effective in patients with relapsed and refractory blood cancer who have relapsed or have not responded to existing treatments. In a clinical trial in adult patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large non-(B) cell lymphoma, 33% reported that there was no recurrence after 2 years. Cancer was cured in 39.1%. Moreover, 82% of children with relapsed and refractory non-celled acute lymphocytic leukemia became cancer-free (complete remission). It has been licensed in the United States, Europe and Japan from August 2017.
Novartis researchers. Photo novatis
Not applicable, a considerable amount of money
However, since it is a customized anticancer drug, the cost is quite high. In the case of the United States, it amounts to 500 million won. Japan is also said to be around 400 million won. In the case of Korea, health insurance is not yet applied as it has recently been approved. It is expected that you will be able to benefit from health insurance by next year. In this case, the patient’s burden can be reduced to the level of millions of won.
In addition, there may be side effects of cytokine release syndrome that attack even normal cells. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety contained a 15-year long-term follow-up investigation at the time of approval. The status of the occurrence of abnormal cases must be reported to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety every year.
An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said, “We expect this approval to provide new treatment opportunities for patients with relapsed and refractory hematologic cancer for whom no alternative medicine or standard treatment has been established.
Reporter Minwook Kim [email protected]
