Roche announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the investigational medicine ocrelizumab (OCREVUSTM) for the treatment of people with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). There are currently no approved treatments for PPMS, a debilitating form of MS characterised by steadily worsening symptoms and typically without distinct relapses or periods of remission.
Breakthrough Therapy Designation is designed to expedite the development and review of medicines intended to treat serious or life-threatening diseases and to help ensure people have access to them through FDA approval as soon as possible. The designation is based on positive results from the pivotal Phase III study (called ORATORIO), which showed treatment with ocrelizumab significantly reduced disability progression and other markers of disease activity compared with placebo.Top-line results were presented at the 31st congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) in October 2015.
Roche plans to pursue marketing authorisation for both PPMS and relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS), a more common form of the disease, and will submit data from three pivotal Phase III studies to global regulatory authorities in the first half of 2016. OCREVUSTM is the proprietary name submitted to global regulatory authorities for the investigational medicine ocrelizumab.
