CTI BioPharma Corp said recently the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its drug for treating adult patients with a type of bone marrow cancer who also have low blood platelet count.

The drug, Vonjo (pacritinib), belongs to a class of anti-inflammatory treatments called JAK inhibitors, and will compete with Incyte Corp’s Jakafi and Bristol Myers’ Inrebic, which were approved in 2011 and 2019 respectively for treating Myelofibrosis.

Myelofibrosis causes extensive scarring in the bone marrow and disrupts the body’s production of blood cells, causing low platelet count, anaemia, weakness, fatigue and often swelling of the liver and spleen.

Incyte expects to generate revenue of $2.3 billion-$2.4 billion in the US sales alone, while Inrebic, which was acquired by Bristol after it bought Celgene in 2019, generated about $74 million in sales last year.

In a late-stage study in patients with severe thrombocytopenia who were treated with CTI Biopharma’s drug twice a day, 29 per cent of patients had a reduction in spleen volume, compared to three per cent of patients receiving the best available therapy, which included Jakafi.