After 10 years of development, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of XPOVIO, the world’s first drug for treating myeloma type leukemia, the second most common type of blood cancer.
The disease harms various body systems and may cause anemia, lytic spots in the bones, impairment of the kidneys and a sharp increase in calcium levels.
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The groundbreaking medication, which approved in July, is also the first to prevent the proliferation of cancer cells in the patient’s body.
The medication was developed by Israel’s Dr. Sharon Shacham. The day after receiving FDA approval, the company he established Karyopharm Therapeutics stocks, traded on NASDAQ, rose by 40%. Within the next six days of FDA approval, cancer patients throughout the USA started benefiting from this innovative treatment
According to Karyopharm press release, New England Journal of Medicine published an article about the new medication and about the relevant associated research findings. “40% of patients responded to the medication and their tumors shrank in size. Their life expectancy increased from 3 to 5 times due to this innovative treatment.”, the company said.
XPOVIO has larger implications on the future of cancer treatment and may hold the answer for patients with other types of cancers, Karyopharm said.
The development is “undergoing advanced clinical trials with various types of cancer patients, among them myeloma, lymphoma, sarcoma, uterine cancer, and brain cancer.”
Dr. Sharon Shacham said: “We believe that our activity at Karyopharm constitutes an important milestone in the war on cancer”.
Anat Haas Mizrahi, general manager of Karyopharm, wrote that “Most of the clinical trials are open to patients in Israel. Naturally, we will continue to works towards receiving approval to market and sell XPOVIO in Israel as well.”
