• Biogen announced that its New Drug Application (NDA) for nusinersen, an investigational treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), has been accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Priority Review, and that the company’s Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) has been validated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Nusinersen had previously been granted Accelerated Assessment status by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP). The regulatory review process for these applications has now been initiated in the US and EU. Both the Priority Review and Accelerated Assessment designations can reduce the standard review time. If approved, nusinersen would be the first therapy for SMA, a leading genetic cause of infant mortality.

  • ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the New Drug Application (NDA) for ARIAD’s investigational oral anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, brigatinib, in patients with metastatic ALK-positive (ALK+) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on crizotinib. The FDA granted ARIAD’s request for Priority Review and has set an action date of April 29, 2017 under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA).

    “The FDA acceptance of our application is an important milestone in our ongoing efforts to discover, develop and deliver highly innovative treatments for patients with rare cancers,” said Paris Panayiotopoulos, president and chief executive officer of ARIAD. “We are pleased that our significant R&D investments in brigatinib and our work with the FDA are bringing us closer to potentially offering a treatment option for patients with ALK+ NSCLC who are refractory to crizotinib. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the FDA during the brigatinib NDA review and remain committed to developing critical therapies for unserved and underserved small patient populations suffering from rare cancers.”

    ARIAD’s NDA submission includes clinical data from its Phase 1/2 and pivotal Phase 2 ALTA trials of brigatinib. The FDA’s Priority Review status accelerates the review time from 10 months to a goal of six months from the filing of the application. Brigatinib received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for the treatment of patients with ALK+ NSCLC whose tumors are resistant to crizotinib, and was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of ALK-positive, ROS1-positive, and EGFR-positive NSCLC. ARIAD plans to submit a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for brigatinib to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in early 2017.

    ARIAD is a small, research-driven biotechnology company. ARIAD has invested more than USD 1.3 billionin R&D since the Company was founded. In 2015, ARIAD generated USD 119 million in total revenue and invested USD 171 million, or 143 percent of revenue, in R&D.

    << Pharma News

    Subscribe to PharmaTutor News Alerts by Email

  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration  approved the Amplatzer PFO Occluder device. The PFO Occluder reduces the risk of a stroke in patients who previously had a stroke believed to be caused by a blood clot that passed through a small hole in the heart, called a patent foramen ovale (PFO), and then traveled to the brain. The Amplatzer PFO Occluder device is manufactured by St. Jude Medical Inc. based in Plymouth, Minnesota.

  • Sanofi and Regeneron Pharma Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) regarding the Biologics License Applications (BLA) for sarilumab, an investigational interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) antibody for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

  • Allergan plc announced that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Restasis Multidose (Cyclosporine Ophthalmic Emulsion) 0.05%, a preservative-free, multi-dose bottle offering the same preservative-free formulation of Restasis since the launch in 2003. Restasis is the one and only prescription treatment FDA approved to help patients with a type of chronic dry eye make more of their own tears.

  • Medtronic plc announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and U.S. launch of the CoreValve(TM) Evolut(TM) R 34 mm valve-the largest sized transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system available in the U.S. The new Evolut R 34 mm valve is approved for severe aortic stenosis patients who are at high or extreme risk for surgery with an annulus size ranging from 26-30 mm. This large valve segment is estimated to account for approximately 25-30 percent of the eligible global TAVR patient population. Previously, some of these patients were unable to receive a TAVR due to the larger size of their native diseased aortic valve.

  • Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. and Inspirion Delivery Sciences LLC (Inspirion) have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement in the US to commercialize FDA-approved MorphaBond (morphine sulfate) extended-release tablets, CII. The agreement also provides Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. with the rights to commercialize a separate investigational Inspirion compound in the US, if approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

  • Astellas Pharma Inc. and Pfizer Inc. announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to update the US product labeling for Xtandi (enzalutamide) capsules to include new clinical data versus bicalutamide from the TERRAIN study. The data demonstrate improvement in radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who were treated with enzalutamide compared to patients who were treated with bicalutamide.

  •  Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc.  announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval to market betrixaban for extended-duration prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in acute medically ill patients with risk factors for VTE. Betrixaban, an FDA Fast Track-designated investigational drug, is an oral, once-daily Factor Xa inhibitor anticoagulant.

  • Abeona Therapeutics Inc. Announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for ABO-102, a single intravenous injection of AAV gene therapy for subjects with MPS IIIA (Sanfilippo syndrome type A), a rare autosomal recessive disease affecting every cell and organ in the body causing neurocognitive decline, speech loss, loss of mobility, and premature death in children.

Subscribe to USFDA