Latest news on serputinib/serpatinib in 2024

The targeted drug Selpercatinib has been a treatment option for some patients with lung or thyroid cancer whose tumors contain a specific change in a gene called RET. But studies comparing seputinib with other standard treatments for tumors with RET alterations are limited. Two new clinical trials have done just that. One trial included patients with lung cancer and the other included patients with medullary thyroid cancer.

In both trials, treatment with seputinib extended how long patients lived before their cancer worsened, called progression-free survival, compared with other treatments. Seputinib is approved to treat some lung, thyroid and other solid tumors with RET alterations, such as mutations in the gene itself and rearrangements that fuse part of the gene with another gene. These mutations and fusions result in abnormal proteins that stimulate cell growth and lead to tumor formation. Seputinibis a pill that patients take orally that blocks the activity of the abnormal RET protein and fusion proteins involving part of the RET.

Up to now, the original research drug is sold in China under the name of Seputinib, but it is not included in medical insurance. The price of each box of 80mg*56 tablets may be more than 10,000 yuan. There are European and American versions of the original drugs sold overseas, with the price of each box ranging from 20,000 to more than 100,000 yuan (prices may fluctuate due to exchange rates). Generic drugs of Seputinib have also been put on the market for sale overseas, and their pharmaceutical ingredients are basically the same as those of the original drugs sold domestically and abroad. For example, the price of 40mg*120 capsules produced by a Laos pharmaceutical factory is more than RMB 4,000 per box (the price may fluctuate due to exchange rates).