GENESIS Pharma and Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced an exclusive distribution agreement for RIPRETINIB in 14 European markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, GENESIS Pharma will exclusively commercialize RIPRETINIB for the treatment of fourth-line gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. RIPRETINIB is approved in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) who have received prior treatment with three or more kinase inhibitors, including imatinib.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (Gist) is a rare neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract affecting the digestive tract or nearby structures within the abdomen, most often presenting in the stomach or small intestine1. GIST is the most frequent sarcoma of the gastrointestinal tract, with a reported incidence of 10-15 cases per year2. The majority of GISTs are driven by two oncogenic protein kinases, KIT and PDGFRA gain-of-function mutations.

The most common primary mutations are in KIT kinase, representing approximately 80% of cases, or in PDGFRA kinase, representing approximately 5-10% of cases3. Current therapies are unable to inhibit the full spectrum of primary and secondary mutations, which drives resistance to most tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) therefore leading to disease progression. estimates for 5-year survival rate range from 48% to 90%, depending on the stage of the disease at diagnosis.