The company noted Monday that its drug, developed entirely in-house by KeChow, becomes the first approved targeted therapy for this patient population. Melanoma harbouring NRAS mutations represents approximately 10-12% of melanoma patients in China and is characterised by more aggressive disease and poorer outcomes, it added.
The approval was based on positive data from a pivotal single-arm Phase II study involving 100 patients in China. KeChow said the trial demonstrated an overall response rate (ORR) of 35.8%, with median progression-free survival of 4.2 months. In a subset of patients previously treated with immunotherapy, the ORR increased to 40.6%.
Side effects include rash and dermatitis acneiform. The most common Grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse event was increased blood creatine phosphokinase, which occurred at a rate of 38%, and was mostly asymptomatic and manageable with dose modification, according to the company.