On May 25, 2022, the prestigious Galenus Prize was awarded for the 40th time. Gilead Sciences’ drug Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan), for inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) from second-line treatment onwards, was awarded as the most innovative drug by an independent jury of university professors.
The Galenus Prize for the most innovative medicine is chosen annually by an independent jury of university professors. The organization is in the hands of the Artsenkrant/Le journal du Médecin. It recognizes the innovative nature of the drug Trodelvy®, a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate directed against the protein Trop-2.
Trodelvy® demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival, progression-free survival, and health-related quality of life in patients with locally advanced and metastatic TNBC, compared to single-agent chemotherapy, among others, in the phase III trial ASCENT.
TNBC is the most aggressive form of breast cancer, diagnosed in younger women more often than other forms of breast cancer. It represents approximately 9 to 11% of all breast cancers in Belgium and approximately 987 new cases of TNBC are diagnosed each year. The prognosis of this type of breast cancer is also much more unfavorable. This triple-negative form of breast cancer has no receptors for estrogen and progesterone and there is also no overexpression or amplification of the HER2 gene.
The nature of this disease on the one hand and the absence of these three treatment targets on the other hand compared to other subtypes of breast cancer makes this type of breast cancer extremely difficult to treat with only limited adequate treatment options.
Sonja Buyle, Sr. Medical Director at Gilead Sciences, said: “Our ambition is very clearly driven by our vision in which we want to make the impossible a reality for patients. Together with the entire Gilead Sciences team and our partners, we strive to have a positive impact and change the lives and futures of cancer patients for the better by truly developing breakthrough therapies where none existed until now.”
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