Roche has announced that the European Commission approved Polivy (polatuzumab vedotin) in combination with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (R-CHP) as first-line therapy for patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
The approval was based on the Phase III POLARIX study. Polivy, in combination with R-CHP, showed improvement in the progression-free survival compared to rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP). After a median follow-up of 28.2 months, there was a 27% reduction in disease worsening or death in Polivy plus R-CHP arm compared to R-CHOP.
Further, the European Commission has given full approval to Polivy for treating adult patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL who are not candidates for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
Polivy is an anti-CD79b antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Most B-cells express CD79b protein, making it an attractive target for treating non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). One in three non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) cases is DLBCL, making it the most common form of NHL. Nearly 150,000 patients worldwide are diagnosed with DLBCL every year.