FDA Approval Insights: Orally Disintegrating Nilotinib Tablets for CML: With Jorge E. Cortes, MD; and Elias Jabbour, MD

In today’s episode, we spoke with Jorge E. Cortes, MD, and Elias Jabbour, MD. Dr Cortes is the chief of Hematology in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the associate director for Translation at the UAB O’Neal Cancer Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr Jabbour is a professor of leukemia in the Department of Leukemia in the Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

In our exclusive interview, Dr Cortes and Dr Jabbour discussed the orally disintegrating tablet formulation of nilotinib (Cavhanza) and its recent June 2026 FDA approval for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). After diving into the approval itself and the data that supported it, they both discussed why the approval is significant and which patients it will benefit most. In addition to covering the approval, the two also shed light on what is to come for biosimilars and alternate formulations in the greater CML treatment paradigm.