AbbVie announced the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has issued a positive opinion for its migraine medication Qulipta (atogepant). Once the CHMP has issued a positive opinion, the EMA will send a recommendation to the European Commission (EC) to approve it. While not a guarantee, a positive CHMP opinion is generally a good indication that a drug is likely to be approved. In a June 2023 statement, AbbVie claims that full approval from the European Commission (EC) would position Qulipta as the only daily oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant) treatment for episodic and chronic migraines available in the EU. Qulipta is approved for use in the US. In 2021, it managed to secure FDA approval to treat episodic migraine, receiving further approval this year to also treat chronic migraine. The positive opinion is based on Phase III trial results submitted ...
Following a negative Advisory Committee (AdCom) decision, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected Intercept’s Ocaliva (obeticholic acid) for the treatment of pre-cirrhotic fibrosis due to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in a complete response letter (CRL) to the company. In a 23 June conference call, the company announced that it would begin the process of shutting down the REGENERATE trial (NCT02548351), with an aim to complete this process by the end of 2023. Intercept will continue to collect study data until the trial is fully terminated. Furthermore, the biotech has already begun “winding down” its NASH-related investment into research and development, commercial, medical affairs and administrative function. The company will also cut down its workforce by a third to minimise operating expenses, beginning in the coming weeks with plans to complete this by the end of 2023. Intercept will pivot its focus to Ocaliva’s use for primary biliary cholangitis ...
Contract research organisation IRBM has announced an extension to its collaboration with US-based Merck & Co. (MSD) to develop peptide therapeutics. IRBM began as part of MSD, in 2000, before being spun off in 2010. Following the separation, the companies continued to work together on drug discovery, with the collaboration being expanded in 2020 to develop peptide therapeutics for coronavirus. Advances in phage and mRNA display platforms have accelerated peptide development in recent years. In particular, IRBM claims it has made major progress with half-life extension strategies and utilising formulation enhancers to support oral route administrations. IRBM told Pharmaceutical Technology that AI is beginning to play a part in peptide discovery, and that radiotheranostics was a rapidly growing area of interest. Italy-based IRBM draws upon expertise in peptide drug development to bring new candidates to fruition. It utilises a platform that covers the entire range of activities required to discover ...
Children with a confirmed mutation of the DMD gene – responsible for causing Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) – are closer to receiving the first gene therapy for the disease after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Sarepta’s highly anticipated Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl). On a conference call following the approval, Sarepta CEO Douglas Ingram said the company has set the wholesale acquisition cost of Elevidys at $3.2m. After a narrow US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee (AdCom) panel vote and a delay to the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date, Sarepta’s therapy crossed the approval finish line. The decision, which came through the accelerated approval pathway, is for children ages four to five with a confirmed mutation in the DMD gene. As per Sarepta, Elevidys’ price is below the cost-effectiveness range, which is estimated to be between $5m and $13m. Sarepta’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) mediated therapy delivers ...
Despite a national opioid overdose epidemic supercharged by a surge of illicit fentanyl, new research from Oregon Health & Science University reveals wide discrepancies among U.S. states in effectively treating opioid use disorder among people covered by Medicaid. The study, published in the journal JAMA Health Forum, found that in many states, fewer than half of people diagnosed with opioid use disorder received proven medications to treat it. “We fail people by not providing adequate treatment to people with opioid use disorder enrolled in Medicaid,” said lead author Stephan Lindner, Ph.D., associate professor in the OHSU Center for Health Systems Effectiveness. Medicaid provides health care coverage to more than 90 million Americans. Evidence strongly suggests that medication should be nearly universal treatment for people with opioid use disorder, said co-author Dennis McCarty, Ph.D., professor emeritus of public health in the OHSU School of Medicine and the OHSU-Portland State University School ...
A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine is gaining ground in their search for solutions to the global problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance, which was responsible for nearly 1.3 million deaths in 2019. The team reports in the journal Science Advances a drug that, in laboratory cultures and animal models, significantly reduces the ability of bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance, which might prolong antibiotic effectiveness. The drug, called dequalinium chloride (DEQ), is a proof-of-concept for evolution-slowing drugs. “Most people with bacterial infections get better after completing antibiotic treatment, but there are also many cases in which people decline because the bacteria develop resistance to the antibiotic, which then can no longer kill the bacteria,” said corresponding author Dr. Susan M. Rosenberg, Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research and professor of molecular and human genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor. She also ...
A University of California, Irvine-led team of researchers has discovered that extracts from plants used by the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations peoples in their traditional botanical medicine practices are able to rescue the function of ion channel proteins carrying mutations that cause human episodic ataxia. The study, “Native American ataxia medicines rescue ataxia-linked mutant potassium channel activity via binding to the voltage sensing domain” was published in June in Nature Communications. “Episodic ataxia 1 (EA1) is a movement disorder caused by inherited mutations in the human KCNA1 gene, which encodes Kv1.1, a voltage-gated potassium channel essential for normal function of the human nervous system,” said Geoffrey W. Abbott, Ph.D., vice dean of basic science research and professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the UCI School of Medicine. “We found that extracts of stinging nettle, bladderwrack kelp and Pacific ninebark can all correct function of the mutation-carrying proteins causing ...
Consuming omega-3 fatty acids—particularly alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a nutrient found in foods including flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia, canola and soybean oils—may help slow the progression of disease in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study is published on June 21, 2023, in Neurology. “Prior findings from our research group have shown that a diet high in ALA and increased blood levels of this fatty acid may decrease the risk of developing ALS. In this study, we found that among people living with ALS, higher blood levels of ALA were also associated with a slower disease progression and a lower risk of death within the study period,” said lead author Kjetil Bjornevik, assistant professor of epidemiology and nutrition. “These findings, along with our previous research, suggest that this fatty acid may have neuroprotective effects that could ...
Life sciences venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering has unveiled Empress Therapeutics, a small molecule drug development startup. The Moderna-backed venture fund has launched Empress with a $50m investment. This will support development of its proprietary Chemilogics platform and drug discovery pipeline. So far, Empress claims to have generated 15 drug leads across multiple indications. These span multiple structural classes and target several classes of proteins, including cytokines, enzymes, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and ion channels. With this pipeline, Empress hopes to address unmet clinical needs in immune and inflammatory conditions, and metabolic, neurologic, oncologic, and pain disorders. The company expects to file multiple IND applications in these areas over the next couple of years. Empress benefits from a wealth of clinical data, and recent advances in genomics, artificial intelligence (AI) and synthetic biology. This allows the company’s platform to read genetic code and use biosynthetic instructions to find, make and ...
Calliditas Therapeutics has submitted a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for complete approval of TARPEYO (budesonide). The TARPEYO delayed-release capsule is a corticosteroid indicated for reducing proteinuria to treat primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) in adult patients at risk of quick disease progression, generally having a urine protein-to-creatinine ratio greater than or equal to 1.5g/g. The therapy received accelerated approval based on showing a reduction in proteinuria. The submission of sNDA to the regulator was based on the findings obtained from the Phase III NefIgArd clinical trial. The multicentre, randomised, double-blind trial was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of TARPEYO 16 mg compared with placebo against a background of optimised RASi (renin–angiotensin system inhibitor) therapy in primary IgA adult patients. TARPEYO showed a highly statistically significant benefit in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over a two-year period of treatment. The ...
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