Highlights
[Imbruvica] has been around the longest and I’ve had a lot of experience with it. Now the use of Imbruvica has gone down because of better BTK inhibitors in terms of side-effect profile, but still I use more Imbruvica, even though the percentage has gone down. Because it really has to do with the fact it has been around the longest, with the longest follow-up time, and patients with no risk factors for AFib or bleeding, many times they prefer a drug that’s been around the longest, that many more patients have gotten it.
As I treat more patients, I find myself using more Calquence. And the other thing, also, is when I introduced the idea of Calquence to my patients a year ago, and I would tell them you have the potential for AFib, patients were more reluctant because they don’t like to be, as one patient told me, “a guinea pig”, right? So they always want to have more experience. So that Imbruvica’s biggest advantage is, one can say that there is now six or seven years of follow-up. But now that Calquence – the latest number is four years of followup at the latest ASH meeting, patients are more comfortable and I’m also comfortable because I’ve used Calquence more and more.
Overview
A US-based key opinion leader (KOL) gives insights into prescribing habits, key marketed brands, and late-phase pipeline therapies for CLL. Pipeline therapies discussed include Brukinsa, U2 regimen, non-covalent BTK inhibitors, and CD19-directed CAR-T therapy.