By Tristan Manalac Pictured: BioMarin headquarters/iStock, Michael Vi The FDA has approved BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s valoctocogene roxaparvovec-rvox, to be marketed as Roctavian in the U.S., for the treatment of adult patients with severe hemophilia A, the company announced Thursday. Roctavian, a one-time single-dose infusion, is authorized for use only in adults without antibodies against the adeno-associated virus serotype 5 (AAV5), as determined by an FDA-approved test. It is also the first gene therapy approved for hemophilia A, according to BioMarin’s news release. In an investor call Thursday afternoon, BioMarin Chief Commercial Officer Jeff Ajer said that “the product profile of Roctavian presents tremendous value to patients, including bleed control, good safety profile and freedom from the burden of chronic therapy.” Roctavian is “priced at a wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC, that equates to $2.9 million for the typical patient for this one-time, single-dose treatment,” Ajer said. Hemophilia A is an inherited ...
While Dupixent often steals the show, Sanofi isn’t sleeping on its vaccine franchise. Boasting prophylactic prospects in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), pneumococcal disease and flu—including a clutch of promising mRNA candidates—the French pharma feels confident its shots can deliver billions of dollars by the end of the decade. By 2030, Sanofi figures its immunizations could generate more than €10 billion in annual sales, the company said during a vaccines R&D event Thursday. Much of that momentum hinges on Sanofi’s pipeline, where the company is targeting an “accelerated pace of innovation” in a bid to launch at least five innovative phase 3 vaccine programs by 2025. “When developing new vaccines, our scientists can now choose from nine distinct platforms—probably the largest number in the industry,” Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi’s executive vice president of vaccines, said of the company’s future immunization prospects. And despite big things on the horizon—principally in the form of ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a complete response letter (CRL) for Alvotech’s Humira biosimilar AVT02, further delaying the company’s plans to launch the drug in a landmark year. The agency rejected the drug’s biologics licence application (BLA) over deficiencies seen at one of the company’s manufacturing facilities in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to Alvotech’s press release on 28 June. While the FDA did not make a note of any other deficiencies in the BLA, issues related to the Reykjavik facility need to be resolved to facilitate the drug’s potential approval. This marks the second time that the FDA has rejected AVT02’s BLA this year. In April, the regulator issued a CRL to Alvotech, which also noted the deficiencies seen in the company’s Reykjavik plant. Prior to that, the company received a CRL from the FDA over deficiencies in the plant in September 2022. Alvotech plans to resubmit ...
After an initial rejection in 2020 and a review delay earlier this year, BioMarin’s Roctavian has finally got the FDA go-ahead to introduce a gene therapy for a not-so-rare disorder.The FDA has cleared Roctavian as a one-time therapy for adults with severe hemophilia A, BioMarin said Thursday. The news comes seven months after the FDA greenlighted CSL Behring’s hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix, which bears a list price of $3.5 million and is currently the most expensive drug in the world. BioMarin is pricing Roctavian at a wholesale acquisition cost of $2.9 million, BioMarin’s chief commercial officer Jeff Ajer said during a call Thursday. It’s also setting up an outcomes-based warranty program. The warranty will reimburse government and commercial payers up to the full cost if Roctavian doesn’t live up to its treatment expectations. Partial reimbursement will be granted if an individual loses response to the therapy in the first four ...
Sanofi has announced positive results from a phase 2b trial of amlitelimab in adults with moderate-to-severe cases of atopic dermatitis, one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases. Typically referred to as eczema, atopic dermatitis affects an estimated 16.5 million adults in the US, with nearly 40% affected by moderate-to-severe cases. The disease causes itchy, red, swollen and cracked skin, usually affecting the folds of the arms, back of the knees, hands, feet, face and neck. Sanofi’s amlitelimab is an investigational anti-OX40-ligand monoclonal antibody that is designed to rebalance the immune system by blocking inappropriate activation and proliferation of pro-inflammatory effector T cells and promoting expansion of anti-inflammatory regulatory T cells. The company says the candidate “has the potential to be a first-in-class treatment for a range of immune-mediated diseases and inflammatory disorders”, including moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and asthma. The dose-ranging STREAM-AD study has been evaluating amlitelimab in adult patients ...
Merely a month into an FDA approval, AbbVie and Genmab’s bispecific drug Epkinly has chalked up a positive readout that might enable an expansion in blood cancer, although the exact regulatory path remains unclear. Epkinly significantly beat back tumors in 82% of patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma in a phase 1/2 trial, the companies said Tuesday. The patients had received a minimum two—and a median three—prior lines of systemic therapy. The median duration of response hasn’t been reached in Epkinly’s study, and investigators are still following patients. The companies also didn’t disclose the complete response rate. Full results from the study will be shared at a future medical meeting. Epkinly snagged an FDA approval for previously treated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCLC) in May, and AbbVie and Genmab said they will talk to regulators about next steps in FL, an indolent form of lymphoma. If approved in the ...
By Tristan Manalac https://www.biospace.com/ Pictured: Atopic dermatitis patient scratches their arm/iStock The company announced Tuesday that topline data from the Phase IIb STREAM-AD trial showed that Sanofi’s investigational antibody amlitelimab met the study’s primary outcome and strongly eased symptoms in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. After 16 weeks of treatment, patients in the amlitelimab group saw significant improvements in their average Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) scores compared to placebo. Amlitelimab retained its statistical edge over the placebo across all four studied doses. Sanofi’s candidate also cleared the study’s key secondary endpoints, including biomarker measurements, which suggested that amlitelimab had therapeutic effects on both type 2 and non-type 2 inflammatory pathways, according to the company’s news release. Improvements in primary and secondary measures persisted through 24 weeks of follow-up. These Phase IIb results support amlitelimab’s mechanism of action and indicate that “targeting OX40-Ligand has the potential to provide a ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: A Biogen building/courtesy of PictureDesignSwiss/shutterstock After a June 12 shakeup of Biogen’s board of directors that included three directors foregoing their re-election, the company announced Monday that shareholders elected Susan Langer, who currently serves as president of Souffle Therapeutics, to the board. Langer will serve on the board for a one-year term, according to the press release. She was nominated by Alex Denner, a former member of the board who did not stand for re-election. According to reporting by Endpoints News and STAT News, Langer is Denner’s romantic partner and the mother of his child. BioPharma Dive reported that during Monday’s annual meeting of stockholders, Biogen management was asked why the company didn’t disclose this potential conflict of interest. Caroline Dorsa, the new chair, replied that Langer’s “personal matters obviously are much less relevant than what she brings to this board.” Langer has previously worked at ...
Biotech start-up Psylo and Daiichi Sankyo have signed a sponsored research deal to advance the development of non-hallucinogenic psychiatric therapies. The therapies will be developed as new antidepressants for patients suffering from chronic mental illness. The biotech company will use its knowledge of neuropsychiatric therapies and the experience of Daiichi Sankyo in drug discovery and clinical development to advance the new therapies’ research and development. Psylo CEO Josh Ismin stated: “We are thrilled to receive support from Daiichi Sankyo in our mission to develop new and effective treatments for chronic mental illness. “This sponsorship represents a step forward in our efforts to harness the therapeutic potential of compounds to address mental health challenges.” The company develops next-generation therapeutics inspired by a new class of neuropsychiatric compounds. It also plans to open a new office at the B+labs incubation space in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. This will provide Psylo with access to ...
By Tristan Manalac www.biospace.com Pictured: FDA Building/courtesy of Grandbrothers/Adobe Stock The FDA has placed Mersana Therapeutics’ UP-NEXT and UPGRADE-A trials on partial clinical hold, the company announced Thursday. Both studies evaluate Mersana’s investigational antibody-drug conjugate upifitamab rilsodotin in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer. The regulatory pause was triggered by an aggregate safety report containing information from around 560 patients who had received upifitamab rilsodotin (UpRi). Mersana’s data showed a higher rate of serious bleeding events, though most of these episodes were low-grade. Still, five cases of serious bleeding were fatal. The exact causes of bleeding are still unknown and are currently being investigated. Mersana’s stocks fell 60% in pre-market trading Thursday in response to the news. The FDA has yet to provide Mersana with a formal written communication regarding the partial clinical hold. However, the company expects the regulator to request a more comprehensive evaluation of UpRi’s safety data. Mersana is working ...
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