Cobimetinib

Cobimetinib is an oral cancer drug sold under the brand name Cotellic that inhibits MEK, also called MAP2K, a kinase in the same growth signaling pathway targeted by other MEK inhibitor drugs. Genentech brought cobimetinib to market, and the United States Food and Drug Administration approved it in November 2015 for use together with vemurafenib against unresectable or metastatic melanoma carrying a BRAF V600E or V600K mutation, and it has also been used against histiocytic neoplasms. In the phase III trial that supported approval, adding cobimetinib to vemurafenib raised median progression free survival to 12.3 months compared with 7.2 months for vemurafenib alone, and 65 percent of patients on the combination were alive at 17 months compared with 50 percent on vemurafenib alone. Cobimetinib is taken by mouth, and pairing a MEK inhibitor with a BRAF inhibitor blocks the same cancer driving pathway at two points, which slows the tumor's ability to develop resistance to either drug alone.