“Multiple myeloma still represents a considerable therapeutic challenge today. There is a therapeutic need that will also see other indications, other registration studies. On this front, Sanofi is also studying new generation antibodies that recruit the body’s immune system by activating it specifically against cancer cells ”. This was stated by Marcello Cattani, President and CEO of Sanofi Italia, speaking this morning during the debate “The Melanoma Archipelago”, promoted by the French pharmaceutical group, and which was also attended by Paolo Corradini, Director of the Hematology Division, Foundation Irccs National Cancer Institute of Milan, Professor of Hematology at the University of Milan and and Aurelio Luglio, Director of Ail – Association against Leukemia, Lymphomas and Myeloma, section of Bologna.
The meeting was also and above all an opportunity to present the results of a new treatment that includes isatixumab, a drug recently available in Italy for patients in an advanced stage of the disease. Sanofi’s intent is in fact “an articulated program of clinical studies to redesign the treatment of multiple myeloma”. In the ‘Icaria-Mm’ clinical trial, the new drug, an anti-CD-38 monoclonal antibody, in combination with pomalidomide (pom-dex) and dexamethasone, was shown to significantly reduce the risk of disease progression or death compared to alone pom-dex regimen in fragile patients who have already had two relapses and are resistant and refractory to treatment, but also in particularly fragile patients, over 75 years of age and renal insufficiency.
Sanofi has dedicated a new edition of the “Research to care Onco-hematology” research call to multiple myeloma. The tender closes on January 14, 2022. 100 thousand euros are up for grabs, made available by the Specialty care division Sanofi Genzyme, for the two projects that will demonstrate the greatest drive towards innovation for patient care. “We have a long tradition of research in hematology and oncology and never as in recent years have we been concentrating our commitment in the development of innovative therapies above all, but not exclusively, in 4 main areas: skin cancers (not melanoma), lung cancer, breast cancer and multiple myeloma ”, concluded Cattani.