FDA approval of Novartis’ capmatinib heralds arrival of new targeted lung cancer therapies

FDA’s approval of the c-MET inhibitor Tabrecta capmatinib from Novartis is the first for a series of targeted non-small cell lung cancer therapies expected to reach the market this year. It’s also the first approval for the subset of lung cancer patients with a certain c-MET mutation.

Tabrecta and its FoundationOne CDx companion diagnostic from Foundation Medicine Inc. were approved to treat and diagnose metastatic NSCLC with a mutation that leads to c-MET exon 14 skipping -- a genetic subtype that affects about 4,000-5,000 patients in the U.S. each year and that’s associated with a poor prognosis...