DEC 04, 2020 2:09 PM PST

OTC Drug Found Safe for Multiple Myeloma

WRITTEN BY: Nouran Amin

Injecting the immune-boosting drug ‘teclistamab’ was found to be safe and effective in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

"These are exciting results for multiple myeloma patients," says Alfred L. Garfall, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology-Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "To have a single, subcutaneous-injectable drug that is effective in patients whose disease had become resistant to so many prior therapies, is well tolerated, and often yields long-lasting responses is a promising achievement."

Learn more about multiple myeloma:

Teclistamab is an antibody that triggers T cells to attack the multiple myeloma cells expressing B cell maturation antigen (BMCA).

"Teclistamab takes a similar approach to cellular therapies, which genetically engineer a patient's T cells to find and destroy cancer cells," Garfall said. "Except, this is jumpstarting the immune system with a single, off-the-shelf drug that takes 15 minutes to administer, in contrast to cellular therapies that take several weeks to manufacture for each patient."

Source: Science Daily

About the Author
Doctorate (PhD)
Nouran is a scientist, educator, and life-long learner with a passion for making science more communicable. When not busy in the lab isolating blood macrophages, she enjoys writing on various STEM topics.
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