Overview

This is a summary of the European public assessment report (EPAR) for Pemetrexed Hospira. It explains how the Agency assessed the medicine to recommend its authorisation in the EU and its conditions of use. It is not intended to provide practical advice on how to use Pemetrexed Hospira.

For practical information about using Pemetrexed Hospira, patients should read the package leaflet or contact their doctor or pharmacist.

Pemetrexed Hospira is a cancer medicine used to treat two types of lung cancer:

  • malignant pleural mesothelioma (a cancer of the lining of the lungs that is usually caused by exposure to asbestos), where it is used together with cisplatin in patients who have not received chemotherapy before and whose cancer cannot be removed by surgery;
  • advanced non-small-cell lung cancer of the kind known as ‘non-squamous’, where it is used either in combination with cisplatin in previously untreated patients or on its own in patients who have previously received cancer treatment. It can also be used as a maintenance treatment in patients who have received a platinum-based chemotherapy.

Pemetrexed Hospira is a ‘generic medicine’. This means that Pemetrexed Hospira is similar to a ‘reference medicine’ already authorised in the European Union (EU) called Alimta.

Pemetrexed Hospira contains the active substance pemetrexed.

Pemetrexed Hospira is available as a powder that is made up into a solution for infusion (drip) into a vein. The medicine can only be obtained with a prescription and should only be given under the supervision of a doctor who is qualified in the use of chemotherapy.

The recommended dose is 500 mg per square metre of body surface area (calculated using the patient’s height and weight). It is given once every three weeks as an infusion lasting 10 minutes. To reduce side effects, patients should take a corticosteroid (a type of medicine that reduces inflammation) and folic acid (a type of vitamin), and receive injections of vitamin B12 during treatment with Pemetrexed Hospira. When Pemetrexed Hospira is given with cisplatin, an ‘anti-emetic’ medicine (to prevent vomiting) and fluids (to prevent dehydration) should also be given before or after the cisplatin dose.

Treatment should be delayed or stopped, or the dose reduced, in patients whose blood counts are abnormal or who have certain other side effects. For more information, see the summary of product characteristics (also part of the EPAR).

The active substance in Pemetrexed Hospira, pemetrexed, is a cytotoxic medicine (a medicine that kills cells that are dividing, such as cancer cells), which belongs to the group ‘antimetabolites’. In the body, pemetrexed is converted into an active form that blocks the activity of the enzymes that are involved in producing ‘nucleotides’ (the building blocks of DNA and RNA, the genetic material of cells). As a result, the active form of pemetrexed slows down the formation of DNA and RNA and prevents the cells from dividing and multiplying. The conversion of pemetrexed into its active form occurs more readily in cancer cells than in normal cells, leading to higher levels of the active form of the medicine and a longer duration of action in cancer cells. This results in the division of cancer cells being reduced, while normal cells are only slightly affected.

The company provided data from the published literature on pemetrexed. No additional studies were needed as Pemetrexed Hospira is a generic medicine that is given by infusion and contains the same active substance as the reference medicine, Alimta.

Because Pemetrexed Hospira is a generic medicine, its benefits and risks are taken as being the same as the reference medicine’s.

The Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) concluded that, in accordance with EU requirements, Pemetrexed Hospira has been shown to be comparable to Alimta. Therefore, the CHMP’s view was that, as for Alimta, the benefit outweighs the identified risk. The Committee recommended that Pemetrexed Hospira be approved for use in the EU.

A risk management plan has been developed to ensure that Pemetrexed Hospira is used as safely as possible. Based on this plan, safety information has been included in the summary of product characteristics and the package leaflet for Pemetrexed Hospira, including the appropriate precautions to be followed by healthcare professionals and patients.

Further information can be found in the Pemetrexed Hospira : EPAR - Risk-management-plan summary.

The European Commission granted a marketing authorisation valid throughout the European Union for Pemetrexed Hospira on 20 November 2015.

For more information about treatment with Pemetrexed Hospira, read the package leaflet (also part of the EPAR) or contact your doctor or pharmacist.

The full EPAR for the reference medicine can also be found on the Agency’s website.

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Product information

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Latest procedure affecting product information: IB/0033/G

29/08/2022

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This medicine’s product information is available in all official EU languages.
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Product information documents contain:

  • summary of product characteristics (annex I);
  • manufacturing authorisation holder responsible for batch release (annex IIA);
  • conditions of the marketing authorisation (annex IIB);
  • labelling (annex IIIA);
  • package leaflet (annex IIIB).

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Product details

Name of medicine
Pemetrexed Pfizer (previously Pemetrexed Hospira)
Active substance
  • pemetrexed disodium
  • pemetrexed disodium hemipentahydrate
International non-proprietary name (INN) or common name
pemetrexed
Therapeutic area (MeSH)
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
  • Mesothelioma
Anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) code
L01BA04

Pharmacotherapeutic group

Antineoplastic agents

Therapeutic indication

Malignant pleural mesothelioma

Pemetrexed Pfizer in combination with cisplatin is indicated for the treatment of chemotherapy naïve patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Non-small cell lung cancer

Pemetrexed Pfizer in combination with cisplatin is indicated for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer other than predominantly squamous cell histology.

Pemetrexed Pfizer is indicated as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer other than predominantly squamous cell histology in patients whose disease has not progressed immediately following platinum-based chemotherapy.

Pemetrexed Pfizer is indicated as monotherapy for the second-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer other than predominantly squamous cell histology.

Authorisation details

EMA product number
EMEA/H/C/003970

Generic

This is a generic medicine, which is developed to be the same as a medicine that has already been authorised, called the reference medicine. A generic medicine contains the same active substance(s) as the reference medicine, and is used at the same dose(s) to treat the same disease(s). For more information, see Generic and hybrid medicines.

Marketing authorisation holder
Pfizer Europe MA EEIG

Boulevard de la Plaine 17
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium

Opinion adopted
23/09/2015
Marketing authorisation issued
19/11/2015
Revision
14

Assessment history

This page was last updated on

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