Pirtobrutinib (brand name Jaypirca) has been approved by Health Canada and is available for use as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients in Canada with CLL/SLL who have received at least two prior lines of therapy, including a BTK inhibitor and a BCL-2 inhibitor.
Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Pirtobrutinib, will soon begin the process of obtaining funding approval by provincial governments by applying to the Canadian Drug Agency (CDA) health technology assessment (HTA) process. CLL Canada will be making a submission to this process, in collaboration with Lymphoma Canada.
In other treatment news, the combination of Acalabrutinib and Venetoclax for the treatment of patients with previously untreated CLL received a positive HTA recommendation from the CDA. Thank you to all of you who completed the survey which enabled CLL Canada and Lymphoma Canada to make the patient voice heard in the HTA process.
Before the Acalabrutinib-Venetoclax treatment is publicly funded, a price must be negotiated, and individual provinces have to list the treatment on their formulary. This can take several months.
To understand more about how drugs are approved and funded, see the explainer on the CDA website.