FDA Approves Amgen And Allergan’s KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns), A Biosimilar To Herceptin (trastuzumab)

Amgen and Allergan plc announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns) for all approved indications of the reference product, Herceptin (trastuzumab):  for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing adjuvant and metastatic breast cancer and HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

“The FDA approval of KANJINTI is an important milestone for our biosimilars portfolio, providing an additional treatment option for patients across three types of cancer,” said David M. Reese, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen. “KANJINTI is the third biosimilar from our portfolio to receive FDA approval, highlighting our long-term commitment to providing patients with serious illnesses access to high-quality biological therapies.”

KANJINTI was proven to be highly similar to, and to have no clinically meaningful differences from, Herceptin based on a comprehensive totality of evidence which included extensive comparative analytical, pharmacokinetic and clinical data. At the time of approval, KANJINTI is the only trastuzumab biosimilar to incorporate the evaluation of a single transition in the clinical study, demonstrating similar safety and immunogenicity in patients who were previously on Herceptin.

“KANJINTI is the second of four biosimilars from Amgen and Allergan’s collaboration to be approved by the FDA,” said David Nicholson, chief research and development officer at Allergan. “We are proud of the progress being made as we continuously strive to develop and deliver high-quality cancer therapies in collaboration with Amgen.”

Amgen has a total of 10 biosimilars in its portfolio, three of which have been approved in the U.S. and three that are approved in the European Union (EU).