BRUIN MCL-321: A Phase 3 Open-Label, Randomized Study of Pirtobrutinib Versus Investigator Choice of BTK Inhibitor in Patients with Previously Treated, BTK Inhibitor Naïve Mantle Cell Lymphoma (Trial in Progress)

Background: Covalent Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitors (BTKi) have transformed the management of relapsed mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), but these treatments are not curative and the majority of patients will require additional treatment. Covalent BTKi share pharmacologic liabilities (e.g. low oral bioavailability, short half-life) that collectively may lead to suboptimal BTK target coverage especially in rapidly proliferating tumors with high BTK protein turnover such as MCL. To address these limitations, pirtobrutinib, a highly selective, non-covalent BTKi that inhibits both wild type (WT) and C481-mutated BTK with equal low nM potency was developed. In the phase 1/2 BRUIN study, pirtobrutinib achieved pharmacokinetic exposures that exceeded its BTK IC96 at trough, was well tolerated, and demonstrated promising efficacy in heavily pretreated, poor-prognosis MCL patients, most of whom had prior treatment with a covalent BTKi (Mato et al. Lancet 2021;397,10277:892-901). The purpose of this randomized study is to demonstrate the superiority of pirtobrutinib compared to investigator's choice of covalent BTKi in patients with previously treated MCL.