Pfizer has announced that the FDA accepted for review a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for its first-in-class CDK 4/6 inhibitor, IBRANCE (palbociclib). The sNDA supports the conversion of the accelerated approval of IBRANCE in combination with letrozole to regular approval and includes data from the phase III PALOMA-2 trial, which evaluated IBRANCE as initial therapy in combination with letrozole for postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+, HER2-) metastatic breast cancer. This is the same patient population as the randomized phase II PALOMA-1 trial upon which the accelerated approval of IBRANCE plus letrozole was granted in February 2015. 

The sNDA was granted Priority Review status, which accelerates FDA review time from 10 months to a goal of six months from the day of acceptance of filing.1 The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date for a decision by the FDA is in April 2017. 

“Since its introduction in 2015, more than 45,000 patients have been prescribed IBRANCE by more than 9,000 providers in the U.S.,” said Liz Barrett, global president and general manager, Pfizer Oncology. “We are pleased that the PALOMA-2 trial has further demonstrated the significant clinical benefit of IBRANCE in the first-line setting, providing additional evidence for its continued use as a standard of care medicine.”

PALOMA-2 is a randomized (2:1), multicenter, double-blind phase III study that evaluated a total of 666 women from 186 global sites in 17 countries. The study demonstrated that IBRANCE in combination with letrozole improved progression-free survival compared to letrozole plus placebo as a first-line treatment for postmenopausal women with ER+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer. The adverse events observed with IBRANCE in combination with letrozole in PALOMA-2 were generally consistent with their respective known adverse event profiles.