SUZHOU, China July 20th, 2020 – The partner of CStone Pharmaceuticals (“CStone”, HKEX: 2616), Blueprint Medicines, announced on July 1 the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pralsetinib for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic RET mutant medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancers. Pralsetinib is an investigational, once-daily precision therapy designed to potently and selectively inhibit RET fusions and mutations, including predicted resistance mutations.

Blueprint Medicines submitted the NDA under the Real-Time Oncology Review pilot program (RTOR program), an initiative of the U.S. FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence. The RTOR program aims to explore a more efficient review process to ensure that safe and effective treatments are available to patients as early as possible, while maintaining and improving review quality by the U.S. FDA.

In May 2020, Blueprint Medicines announced that the U.S. and EU marketing applications for pralsetinib for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were accepted by the U.S. FDA and validated by the European Medicines Agency, respectively.

About RET-Altered Solid Tumors

RET activating fusions and mutations are key disease drivers in many cancer types, including NSCLC and MTC. RET fusions are implicated in approximately 1 to 2 percent of patients with NSCLC and approximately 10 to 20 percent of patients with papillary thyroid cancer, while RET mutations are implicated in approximately 90 percent of patients with advanced MTC. In addition, oncogenic RET alterations are observed at low frequencies in colorectal, breast, pancreatic and other cancers, and RET fusions have been observed in patients with treatment-resistant EGFR-mutant NSCLC.

About Pralsetinib

Pralsetinib is an investigational, once-daily oral precision therapy specifically designed for highly potent and selective targeting of oncogenic RET alterations. Blueprint Medicines is developing pralsetinib for the treatment of patients with RET-altered NSCLC, thyroid cancer and other solid tumors. The U.S. FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to pralsetinib for the treatment of RET fusion-positive NSCLC that has progressed following platinum-based chemotherapy, and RET mutation-positive MTC that requires systemic treatment and for which there are no acceptable alternative treatments.

Pralsetinib was designed by Blueprint Medicines’ research team, leveraging the company’s proprietary compound library. In preclinical studies, pralsetinib consistently demonstrated sub-nanomolar potency against the most common RET fusions, activating mutations and predicted resistance mutations. In addition, pralsetinib demonstrated markedly improved selectivity for RET compared to pharmacologically relevant kinases, including approximately 80-fold improved potency for RET versus VEGFR2. By suppressing primary and secondary mutants, pralsetinib has the potential to overcome and prevent the emergence of clinical resistance. Blueprint Medicines believes this approach will enable durable clinical responses across a diverse range of RET alterations, with a favorable safety profile.

Blueprint Medicines has an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with CStone Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialization of pralsetinib and certain other drug candidates in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Blueprint Medicines retains development and commercial rights for pralsetinib in the rest of the world.

About CStone

CStone Pharmaceuticals (HKEX: 2616) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative immuno-oncology and precision medicines to address the unmet medical needs of cancer patients in China and worldwide. Established in 2015, CStone has assembled a world-class management team with extensive experience in innovative drug development, clinical research, and commercialization. The company has built an oncology-focused pipeline of 15 drug candidates with a strategic emphasis on immuno-oncology combination therapies. Currently, 5 late-stage candidates are at pivotal trials. With an experienced team, a rich pipeline, a robust clinical development-driven business model and substantial funding, CStone’s vision is to become globally recognized as a leading Chinese biopharmaceutical company by bringing innovative oncology therapies to cancer patients worldwide.

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