Is larotinib/larlotinib on the market?

Larotrectinib, trade nameVitrakvi/Larotrectinib (Larotrectinib) is a drug for the treatment of cancer.It is an inhibitor of the tropomyosin kinase receptorTrkA, TrkB and TrkC. Larotrectinib originally received orphan drug status in 2015 for soft tissue sarcoma and breakthrough therapy designation in 2016 for NTRK fusion treatment of metastatic solid tumors. On November 26, 2018, larotrectinib was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Larotrectinib is the first drug specifically developed and approved to treat any cancer containing a specific mutation, as opposed to cancer of a specific tissue (i.e., the approval is "tissue agnostic"). Several early drugs, including pembrolizumab, were eventually approved by the FDA to treat specific mutations unrelated to the cancer type, but these drugs were originally developed for specific cancer types. The FDA considers it a first-in-class drug, and it is the second tissue-agnostic drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer.

Larotrectinib was approved for medical use in the European Unionin September 2019 and in Australia in August 2020. Larotrectinib's original drug has also been approved for marketing by the State Food and Drug Administration in China in April and June 2022, and is sold under the trade name of Vitaika. Larotrectinib differs from many other cancer drugs in that it targets specific tumors through a specific arrangement of genes, regardless of where they appear in the body. While research is still ongoing, results published so far show it can effectively reduce the size of patients' tumors. In addition, shortening the time it takes for tumors to shrink is also important to alleviate patients' symptoms. As for its safety, larotrectinib's side effects appear to be manageable.