Eisai Co. Ltd., a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, has launched Lenvima (lenvatinib) in the United Kingdom.

Lenvima is a treatment option for people with radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAI refractory DTC). Advanced thyroid cancer is a difficult to treat condition with a poor prognosis and lenvatinib represents a significant step forward for patients in the UK.

Lenvatinib is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with progressive locally advanced or metastatic, differentiated (papillary, follicular, Hürthle cell) thyroid carcinoma (DTC), refractory to radioactive iodine (RAI).

Lenvatinib, discovered and developed by Eisai, is an oral molecular tri-specific targeted therapy that possesses a potent selectivity and a binding mode different to other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). Lenvatinib simultaneously inhibits the activities of several different molecules including vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR), fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR), RET, KIT and platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFR).

This potentially makes lenvatinib the first TKI that simultaneously inhibits the kinase activities of FGFR 1-4 as well as VEGFR 1-3. In addition, lenvatinib was found to have a new Type V binding mode of kinase inhibition that is distinct from existing compounds.

Lenvatinib has been approved for the treatment of refractory thyroid cancer in the United States, Europe and Japan, and has been submitted for regulatory approval in Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, Russia, Australi and Brazil.
Lenvima was granted Orphan Drug Designation in Japan for thyroid cancer, in the United States for treatment of follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and metastatic or locally advanced papillary thyroid cancer and in Europe for follicular and papillary thyroid cancer.

The development of lenvatinib underscores Eisai's human health care (hhc) mission, the company's commitment to innovative solutions in disease prevention, cure and care for the health and well-being of people worldwide. Eisai is committed to the therapeutic area of oncology and to address the unmet medical needs of patients and their families.