Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. has spent more than a decade developing Tavalisse (fostamatinib) across multiple indications and will finally launch the spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor in late May after the oral drug's US FDA approval on April 17 to treat adults with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to a prior treatment.
Rigel President and CEO Raul Rodriguez told Scrip that the label "is exactly what we were hoping for" with a broad indication allowing treatment of adults with ITP after they've failed treatment with steroids, which is the typical first-line therapy. The company and analysts believe that Tavalisse also may have a commercial advantage over thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonists, because it is not an injection, like Amgen Inc