Abstract
Multiple myeloma remains an incurable disease, with a large proportion of patients in the relapsed/refractory setting often unable to achieve durable responses. Novel, well-tolerated and highly effective therapies in this patient population represent an unmet need. Preclinical studies have shown that B-cell maturation antigen is nearly exclusively expressed on normal and malignant plasma cells, thereby identifying it as a highly selective target for immunotherapeutic approaches. Belantamab mafodotin (GSK2857916, belamaf) is a first-in-class antibody–drug conjugate directed at B-cell maturation antigen and has shown promising activity in clinical trials. In this review, we provide an overview of belantamab mafodotin as a compound and present the available clinical efficacy and safety data in the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
Acknowledgments
We thank the belantamab mafodotin development team at GlaxoSmithKline for reviewing this manuscript for accuracy.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
S Trudel is a consultant Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen Canada and GlaxoSmithKline; received honoria from Celgene, Amgen, Takeda, Sanofi, Karyopharm, Pfizer and Janssen; and grant funding from Janssen, Celgene, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline and Genentech. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.