The in pediatric and young adult patients aged 1 month to 21 years.
Calaspargase pegol-mknl is an asparagine-specific enzyme intended to provide a longer interval between doses, compared with other available pegaspargase products. The recommended dosage of calaspargase pegol-mknl is 2,500 units/m2 given no more frequently than every 21 days.
The FDA said it approved calaspargase pegol-mknl because the drug maintained nadir serum asparaginase activity above the level of 0.1 U/mL when given at 2,500 U/m2 every 3 weeks.
Calaspargase pegol-mknl was evaluated in Study DFCI 11-001, a trial of 237 children and adolescents with newly diagnosed ALL or lymphoblastic lymphoma. The patients’ median age was 5 years.
Study participants received calaspargase pegol-mknl at 2,500 U/m2 (n = 118) or pegaspargase at 2,500 U/m2 (n = 119) as part of a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ALL Consortium backbone therapy. The median duration of exposure was 8 months for both calaspargase pegol-mknl and pegaspargase. Among the patients with B-cell lineage ALL, the complete remission rate was 98% in the calaspargase pegol-mknl arm and 99% in the pegaspargase arm. Estimated overall survival rates were comparable between the arms.
Common grade 3 or higher adverse events in the calaspargase pegol-mknl and pegaspargase arms included elevated transaminase (52% and 66%, respectively), bilirubin increase (20% and 25%), pancreatitis (18% and 24%), and abnormal clotting studies (14% and 21%). There was one fatal adverse event among patients on calaspargase pegol-mknl – multiorgan failure in the setting of chronic pancreatitis associated with a pancreatic pseudocyst.
The safety of calaspargase pegol-mknl was also evaluated in Study AALL07P4, a trial of patients with newly diagnosed, high-risk B-precursor ALL. The patients received calaspargase pegol-mknl at 2,500 U/m2 (n = 43) or 2,100 U/m2 (n = 68) or pegaspargase at 2,500 U/m2 (n = 52) as a component of an augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster regimen. The patients’ median age was 11 years. The median duration of exposure was 7 months for both calaspargase pegol-mknl and pegaspargase. There were 3 induction deaths among the 111 patients who received calaspargase pegol-mknl (2.8%) but no induction deaths among the 52 patients treated with pegaspargase.
Additional details on these studies and calaspargase pegol-mknl can be found in the drug’s prescribing information. Calaspargase pegol-mknl is a product of Servier.