Video

Dr Mark Wildgust: Daratumumab Critical to Improving Patient Response

Daratumumab represents an important addition to the armamentarium of care for improving patient outcomes, said Mark Wildgust, PhD, vice president of Global Medical Affairs/Oncology at Janssen.

Daratumumab, alone and in combination with a proteasome inhibitor and immunomodulation, represents an important addition to the armamentarium of care for improving patient outcomes, especially response rate and progression-free survival, noted Mark Wildgust, PhD, vice president of Global Medical Affairs/Oncology at Janssen.

Transcript

Why have immunomodulatory drugs been so successful in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma?

I think we've learned that immunomodulatory agents like lenalidomide [Revlimid] and pomalidomide have been quite effective. I think if you go back a couple of steps in terms of how we've got to where we are today, we saw thalidomide become a really important component of care. We're kind of moving then from that older chemotherapy-based regimen approach. You saw agents like thalidomide coming forward—brand new mechanism of action, modulating the microenvironment and seeing improvements. We then saw proteasome inhibitors [PIs] come forward, like Velcade. And then we saw them being used by themselves, then we saw them being used with IMiDs [immunomodulatory drugs].

And I think today what we see is that IMiDs are an important component of care. But going back to daratumumab for a second, I think that if you look at the magnitude of benefit that we're adding when we're adding daratumumab to these regimens, it's really clear today that daratumumab is in itself a critical, essential agent in terms of improving outcomes for patients.

And so I think we're at a point now where we can build regimens, like daratumumab plus a PI plus an IMiD, and we can get these very, very high response rates, depth of response, and improvement in PFS [progression-free survival]. And I think building those regimens today is really important. But I think daratumumab is a key part of that, and an IMiD is a piece of that, whether it be thalidomide, Revlimid, or pomalidomide.

Related Videos
Toby Maher, MD, PhD, professor of clinical medicine, Keck School of Medicine at USC
Nini Wu, MD, Navista
Fred Locke, MD, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
Dr Emma Achola-Kothari
Matthew Viggiano, MD, internal medicine resident, Temple University Hospital
Krunal Patel, MD, pulmonary and critical care fellow, Temple University Hospital
M. Bradley Drummond, MD, MHS, professor of medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr Margrit Wiesendanger
Sanjay Ramakrishnan, MD, senior lecturer, University of Western Australia
Michael Goulet, DO, pulmonary and critical care fellow, Temple University Hospital
Related Content
AJMC Managed Markets Network Logo
CH LogoCenter for Biosimilars Logo