AbbVie reports new Imbruvica clinical data at ASCO 2016

AbbVie has announced new clinical data at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) demonstrating the safety and efficacy of its drug Imbruvica.

Longer-term follow-up results from a number of phase III studies were presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of Imbruvica in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).

An analysis of outcomes from the RESONATE and RESONATE-2 trials was presented at the conference, showing Imbruvica was associated with favourable progression-free survival and overall survival regardless of line of therapy.

The firm also gave the first ever presentation of longer-term follow-up data from the HELIOS trial, showing Imbruvica in combination with bendamustine and rituximab demonstrated superiority compared to placebo in relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL patients, along with improvements in quality of response.

Dr Danelle James, head of oncology at Pharmacyclics, said the evidence "positions this therapy as a potentially beneficial treatment option for a variety of patients with CLL or SLL, regardless of when it is prescribed in the treatment journey".

Imbruvica was approved in Europe for the first-line treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia earlier this month.