In the study presented in December, groups of equal sizes were assigned either ibrutinib or zanubrutinib, a second-generation BTK-blocking drug made by a company called BeiGene. Ibrutinib has brought a windfall for its makers, generating $5.4 billion in revenue in 2021 alone. * The BTK blocker was brought to market by the biotech company Pharmacyclics, which was bought by the pharmaceutical giant AbbVie in 2015. The drug targets a protein in leukemic cells called BTK, which is central in their growth blocking BTK causes these cancerous cells to die.

A drug called ibrutinib, sold under the brand name Imbruvica, has been the treatment of choice for CLL since 2014, replacing toxic chemotherapy and significantly extending the lives of patients.

But also present were Wall Street analysts and biotech investors, who focused on garnering information that would help them make money.Īmong the highlights of the meeting was a study assessing which of two drugs was superior in the therapy of chronic lymphocytic leukemia ( CLL), which affects some 200,000 Americans and about one million people globally. As you might expect, the audience was primarily composed of people working in the field-clinicians, laboratory scientists, and trainees in fellowship programs-who focused on advances in hematology that would guide the optimal care of patients and the direction of future research. More than 30,000 attendees listened to presentations of the most recent research on blood and its disorders. This past December the American Society of Hematology held its annual meeting in New Orleans.

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