Pfizer's Oral Cancer Medication Braftovi Receives FDA Approval for Colorectal Cancer Treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for the first-line combination therapy of the oral anticancer drug Braftovi, developed by Pfizer in collaboration with Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical and other companies, for the treatment of colorectal cancer. This decision is based on data from Pfizer's Phase 3 BREAKWATER clinical trial. The FDA has authorized the once-daily medication to be used as part of a combination therapy for previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer patients with BRAF V600E mutations. Following the achievement of one of the dual primary endpoints related to confirmed overall response rate in the BREAKWATER study, the FDA approved Braftovi for the same indication via the accelerated approval pathway in December 2024. Regarding the other dual primary endpoint of progression-free survival, the FDA noted that Braftovi, in combination with the anticancer drug cetuximab, achieved a median progression-free survival of 12.8 months in newly diagnosed metastatic colorectal cancer patients with BRAF V600E mutations. The active pharmaceutical ingredient in Braftovi, encorafenib, is an oral small-molecule BRAF inhibitor. Data indicate that BRAF mutations occur in up to 15% of metastatic colorectal cancer patients, and these individuals have a poor prognosis. The BRAF V600E mutation is the most common BRAF mutation, and colorectal cancer patients carrying this mutation face a mortality rate more than twice that of patients with wild-type BRAF.