AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) announced nine-year results from its Phase 3 CLL14 trial examining venetoclax plus obinutuzumab for previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients at the European Hematology Association Congress in Stockholm.

The final analysis compared venetoclax plus obinutuzumab to chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab in 432 previously untreated CLL patients with coexisting medical conditions. After a median follow-up of 9.2 years, the venetoclax combination demonstrated superior progression-free survival with a median of 6.4 years versus 3.2 years for the control group.

The study showed a median time to next treatment of 7.6 years for patients receiving the venetoclax-based combination. Treatment consisted of venetoclax for 12 months combined with six cycles of obinutuzumab.

The most frequently occurring Grade 3 adverse events in the venetoclax group included neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, infusion-related reactions, anemia, febrile neutropenia, pneumonia and leukopenia. The trial was conducted in collaboration with the German CLL Study Group.

Venetoclax is a BCL-2 protein inhibitor developed jointly by AbbVie and Roche. The drug is approved in more than 80 countries and is indicated for various CLL treatment scenarios, including first-line therapy in combination with several other agents.

The research was presented as part of AbbVie's ongoing clinical development program studying venetoclax across multiple blood cancer types.