BRIEF—Amid low sales, Arzerra for CLL withdrawn from ex-US markets

Denmark’s Genmab will receive a $50 million compensation payment from Novartis after the Swiss firm announced it would stop selling Arzerra (ofatumumab) outside the USA for certain chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) indications.

The therapy is part of a collaboration which has seen Novartis develop and commercialize Arzerra in oncology since 2014.

Genmab chief executive Jan van de Winkel explained that “many more drugs have become available for CLL over the last five years and there is a low number of patients using Arzerra outside of the US market.”

The CD20-targeting monoclonal antibody will still be available under compassionate use programs.

The two Phase III studies of ofatumumab currently ongoing in relapsing multiple sclerosis and a study of in indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma will continue.