MISSISSAUGA, ON, Dec. 13, 2024 /CNW/ - Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada) today announced that it successfully completed negotiations with the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) for TECENTRIQ SC (atezolizumab) on November 19, 2024. The pCPA negotiates on behalf of the provinces and territories, making the end of these negotiations a critical step in bringing TECENTRIQ SC closer to public access.
Reaching this important milestone is the result of close collaboration with pCPA and further emphasizes the need to move quickly through the subsequent steps to public reimbursement. The next step will be for provincial and territorial governments to make the final decision on public reimbursement for their regions.
Roche Canada is committed to continuing to work with the provincial and territorial jurisdictions to make TECENTRIQ SC available as soon as possible through public drug plans for the patients who need it.
TECENTRIQ SC is the first and only anti-PD-L1 cancer immunotherapy available via a sub-cutaneous injection in Canada. Until now, Tecentriq has been given directly into patients’ veins by IV infusion, which takes approximately 30-60 minutes.[2] The new subcutaneous injection offers an alternative administration option, typically requiring around seven minutes, with injection times ranging from three to fourteen minutes.[3] In addition to offering a shorter administration time, Tecentriq SC has the potential to be administered outside of the hospital, in a community care setting or at a patient’s home, by a qualified healthcare professional. Patients benefiting from this new formulation include those with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In 2024, an estimated 32,100 Canadians will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and 4,700 will be diagnosed with liver cancer.[1]
TECENTRIQ SC was reviewed and positively recommended by the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) on July 3, 2024. This recommendation came roughly four months after TECENTRIQ SC received marketing authorization from Health Canada on March 13, 2024.
About TECENTRIQ SC (subcutaneous)[2]
Atezolizumab in Tecentriq SC is the same monoclonal antibody as in Tecentriq (intravenous formulation). It has been designed to bind with a protein called programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which is expressed on tumour cells and tumour-infiltrating immune cells, blocking its interactions with both PD-1 and B7.1 receptors. This protein makes the immune system in your body not work as well. By attaching to the PD-L1 protein, Tecentriq may help the immune system fight the cancer.
Tecentriq is a type of cancer immunotherapy treatment. Immunotherapy treatments work by helping to strengthen or restore the immune system’s ability to fight the cancerous cells.[3]
The marketing authorization applies to all authorized indications of Tecentriq (intravenous formulation), with specific indications in lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC or liver cancer), and breast cancer.
About Roche Canada
At Roche Canada, patients and science are at the heart of everything we do. Our passion for science and our commitment to relentlessly pursuing the impossible for patients have made us one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, in-vitro diagnostics, and diabetes care management companies.With our combined strength in diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, we’re driving healthcare forward, while ensuring we deliver meaningful benefits for patients and a sustainable healthcare system. Because we’re committed to making quality healthcare accessible to everyone.
And we’re adding our expertise in new areas, such as artificial intelligence, real world data collection and analysis and collaborating with many different sectors and industries.
Having the courage to reinvent ourselves and question the status quo is what patients and the healthcare system expect from Roche - and our commitment is as strong today as it was on the first day of our Canadian journey in 1931. Today, Roche Canada employs more than 1,800 people across the country through its Pharmaceuticals division in Mississauga, Ontario as well as its Diagnostics and Diabetes Care divisions in Laval, Quebec.
For more information, please visit www.RocheCanada.com or follow Roche Canada on LinkedIn, or on X / Twitter @RocheCanada.
References
- https://www.cmaj.ca/content/196/18/E615
- TECENTRIQ Product Monograph, March 15, 2024
- TECENTRIQ SC Product Monograph, March 15, 2024.
SOURCE Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada)
