Pharmacy Market
Globenewswire | July 14, 2023
Ardelyx, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company founded with a mission to discover, develop and commercialize innovative, first-in-class medicines that meet significant unmet medical needs, today announced that a New Drug Application (NDA) for tenapanor has been accepted for review by China’s Center for Drug Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for the control of serum phosphorus in adult patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis. This acceptance triggers a $2 million milestone payment to Ardelyx under the terms of the license agreement between Ardelyx and its collaboration partner in China, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Industrial Development Co. Ltd. (Fosun Pharma). A potential approval of the NDA submission in China is expected by the end of 2024.
“The NDA acceptance for tenapanor for hyperphosphatemia in China marks a significant step forward in Ardelyx’s commitment to bringing our novel therapies to patients with unmet medical needs and our desire to expand internationally alongside best-in-class partners who complement our capabilities and share our mission,” said Mike Raab, president and chief executive officer of Ardelyx. “I commend our collaboration partner, Fosun Pharma, on the impressive clinical results they generated which demonstrate the important role that tenapanor can play in offering a new treatment option for patients with hyperphosphatemia. We look forward to further collaboration as Fosun Pharma brings this treatment to patients.”
Under the terms of its agreement with Fosun Pharma, Ardelyx received an upfront payment of $12 million and is eligible to receive additional developmental and commercialization milestones of up to $110 million and tiered royalty payments on net sales ranging from the mid-teens to 20 percent. Fosun Pharma has the exclusive rights to market and sell tenapanor in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
About Ardelyx, Inc.
Ardelyx was founded with a mission to discover, develop and commercialize innovative, first-in-class medicines that meet significant unmet medical needs. Ardelyx’s first approved product, IBSRELA® (tenapanor) is available in the United States and Canada. Ardelyx is developing XPHOZAH® (tenapanor), a novel product candidate for the control of serum phosphorus in adult patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) on dialysis, which has completed three successful Phase 3 trials. Ardelyx has a Phase 2 potassium lowering compound, RDX013, for the potential treatment of elevated serum potassium, or hyperkalemia, a problem among certain patients with kidney and/or heart disease and an early-stage program in metabolic acidosis, a serious electrolyte disorder in patients with CKD. Ardelyx has established agreements with Kyowa Kirin in Japan, Fosun Pharma in China and Knight Therapeutics in Canada for the development and commercialization of tenapanor in their respective territories.
About Fosun Pharma
Founded in 1994, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd.* ("Fosun Pharma"; stock code: 600196. SH, 02196. HK) is a global innovation-driven pharmaceutical and healthcare industry group. Fosun Pharma directly operates businesses including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnosis, and healthcare services. As a shareholder of Sinopharm Co., Ltd., Fosun Pharma expands its areas in the pharmaceutical distribution and retail business.
Fosun Pharma is patient-centered and clinical needs-oriented. The company continuously enriches its innovative product pipeline through independent research and development, cooperative development, license-in, and in-depth incubation. Fosun Pharma improves the research and clinical development capabilities of FIC (First-in-class) and BIC (Best-in-class) new drugs as well as accelerates the R&D and launch of innovative technologies and products.
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Pharmacy Market
Globenewswire | July 20, 2023
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the completion of its acquisition from Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holdings of an exclusive license for North America for vamorolone, a potential treatment for patients suffering with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The license is for exclusive commercial rights in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as the right of first negotiation in Europe and Japan should Santhera pursue partnership opportunities. Additionally, Catalyst will hold North American rights for any future approved indications of vamorolone.
Vamorolone is a promising best-in-class dissociative anti-inflammatory steroid treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ("DMD"). In clinical studies, vamorolone demonstrated efficacy with a significant reduction of steroid-associated side effects and benefits for bone health, growth, and behavior, offering the potential to address an important unmet medical need in DMD patients. Vamorolone has received FDA Orphan Drug and Fast Track designations and has been granted a PDUFA action date of October 26, 2023.
"With the addition of vamorolone, we have accomplished another important milestone in the execution of our portfolio expansion strategy," stated Patrick J. McEnany, Chairman and CEO of Catalyst. "The license for vamorolone reflects our strategic focus on opportunities where we can not only apply novel technology to address critical unmet patient needs, but where we can leverage Catalyst's existing integrated capabilities and infrastructure to commercialize the drug efficiently. We believe that vamorolone, if approved, has the potential to deliver significant near and long-term value and to be a very meaningful advancement to the current standard of care paradigm for DMD patients."
Mr. McEnany continued, "Vamorolone fortifies our neuromuscular portfolio with an innovative therapy that, in clinical studies, demonstrated an enhanced safety and tolerability profile as compared to prednisone. We plan to include vamorolone for DMD patients in our Catalyst Pathways® specialty pharmacy program to help ensure that all patients have access to the full patient benefits of the program. Our planned strategy to facilitate access to vamorolone underscores our steadfast commitment to improving the lives of patients suffering from rare neurological conditions."
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or DMD, the most common form of muscular dystrophy, is a rare, fatal neuromuscular disorder characterized by progressive muscular dysfunction, leading to loss of ambulation, respiratory failure, and death. Corticosteroids are the current standard of care for treating DMD; however, this treatment is associated with significant side effect burdens. The U.S. prevalence for DMD is estimated to be between 11,000 and 13,000 patients. Of patients currently being treated for DMD, approximately 75% receive concomitant steroid treatment.
Vamorolone Commercial Operational Plan
Catalyst expects to launch vamorolone early in the first quarter of 2024, assuming regulatory approval on the PDUFA date of October 26, 2023. Catalyst anticipates minimal sales and marketing personnel expansion with fewer than 10 additional team members required, resulting from the exceptional synergy within its existing neuromuscular franchise. Catalyst plans to incorporate vamorolone for DMD into its Catalyst Pathways® specialty pharmacy program to ensure that patients have access to full patient benefits.
About Vamorolone
Vamorolone is an investigational drug candidate with a mode of action based on binding to the same receptor as glucocorticoids but modifying its downstream activity and as such, is considered a dissociative anti-inflammatory steroid drug [2-5]. This mechanism has shown the potential to 'dissociate' efficacy from steroid safety concerns, and therefore vamorolone could emerge as an alternative to existing corticosteroids, the current standard of care in children, adolescent, and adult patients with DMD. In the pivotal VISION-DMD study, vamorolone met the primary endpoint Time to Stand (TTSTAND) velocity versus placebo (p=0.002) at 24 weeks of treatment and showed a good safety and tolerability profile [1]. The most commonly reported adverse events versus placebo from the VISION-DMD study were cushingoid features, vomiting, and vitamin D deficiency. Adverse events were generally of mild to moderate severity.
Vamorolone has been granted Orphan Drug status for DMD in the U.S. and Europe and has received Fast Track and Rare Pediatric Disease designations by the U.S. FDA and Promising Innovative Medicine (PIM) status from the UK MHRA for DMD. Vamorolone is an investigational medicine and is currently not approved for use by any health authority.
About Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ("DMD") is a rare inherited X-chromosome-linked disease, which almost exclusively affects males. DMD is characterized by muscle inflammation and damage which are present at birth or shortly thereafter. Inflammation leads to fibrosis of muscle and is clinically manifested by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. Major milestones in the disease are the loss of ambulation, the loss of self-feeding, the start of assisted ventilation, and the development of cardiomyopathy. DMD reduces life expectancy to before the fourth decade due to respiratory and/or cardiac failure. Corticosteroids are the current standard of care for the treatment of DMD.
About Catalyst Pharmaceuticals
With exceptional patient focus, Catalyst is committed to developing and commercializing innovative first-in-class medicines that address rare neurological and epileptic diseases. Catalyst's U.S. commercial product portfolio consists of FIRDAPSE® (amifampridine) Tablets 10 mg, approved for the treatment of Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome ("LEMS") for adults and children ages six to seventeen. In January 2023, Catalyst acquired the U.S. commercial rights of FYCOMPA® (perampanel) CIII, a prescription medicine approved in people with epilepsy aged four and older alone or with other medicines to treat partial-onset seizures with or without secondarily generalized seizures, and with other medicines to treat primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures for people with epilepsy aged 12 and older. Further, Canada's national healthcare regulatory agency, Health Canada, has approved the use of FIRDAPSE for the treatment of adult patients in Canada with LEMS.
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Pharmacy Market
PRNewswire | July 17, 2023
Cleveland Clinic Laboratories and LabConnect have announced a strategic alliance to accelerate clinical trials and connect patients to new medicines for improved patient care.
Through this alliance, LabConnect will utilize Cleveland Clinic Laboratories, the reference laboratory within Cleveland Clinic. LabConnect will leverage the health system's extensive array of testing and assay validation services to support laboratory testing for an increasing number of clinical trials.
"This new collaboration will enable our organizations to leverage our complementary strengths to deliver cutting edge testing to an expanded patient base, furthering the mission of Cleveland Clinic to touch more lives," said Brian Rubin, M.D., PhD., chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute at Cleveland Clinic.
The alliance will also significantly accelerate turnaround times for testing results and help researchers achieve clinical trial milestones sooner, resulting in more efficiently developing therapies for patients.
"With our shared mission to create healthier communities, we are excited about this alliance with Cleveland Clinic Laboratories to further accelerate the development of new medicines for patients around the world," said Dawn Sherman, LabConnect Chief Executive Officer.
LabConnect will also establish a new facility to process samples for testing in Cleveland, which is anticipated to result in potential new job opportunities for Northeast Ohio as part of the Cleveland Innovation District.
Partnering with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract research organizations (CROs), and foundations/non-governmental organizations (NGOs), LabConnect provides innovative central laboratory support services for clinical trials of all sizes and complexity across the globe. As the requirements for clinical trials and the drug development process have become more complex, LabConnect meets these requirements by offering researchers scientific and technical expertise for all laboratory-related needs, advising on strategies for lab data collection and providing end-to-end analytical and logistical solutions tailored to each trial.
Cleveland Clinic performs more than 23 million tests each year in Ohio, providing access to high-quality, cost-effective, and convenient laboratory services. More than 100 board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologists, paired with hundreds of expertly trained medical technologists and laboratory technicians, provide essential services and test development to guide clinical decision making for more than 5,000 clients locally and globally.
LabConnect's Co-founder and Chief Development Officer, Jeff Mayhew stated, "With our combined team bringing an unparalleled breadth and depth of experience and expertise, our clients have access to the top clinicians and scientists in the world to help them develop their lab scientific strategy and optimize their protocol for accelerating the development of new medicines."
"By broadening access to expertise and quality care in pathology and laboratory medicine, we are able to continue evolving our services." said Ziad Peerwani, MD, Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic Laboratories. "Through this teamwork, we will support and elevate our work with local and global communities while creating the care for tomorrow."
About Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. Among Cleveland Clinic's 77,000 employees worldwide are more than 5,658 salaried physicians and researchers, and 19,000 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,665-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 22 hospitals, more than 275 outpatient facilities, including locations in northeast Ohio; southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2022, there were 12.8 million outpatient encounters, 303,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 270,000 surgeries and procedures throughout Cleveland Clinic's health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 185 countries.
About LabConnect
LabConnect improves lives by partnering with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract research organizations (CROs), and foundations/non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to accelerate the development of new medicines around the world. LabConnect delivers a unique combination of support services through Central Laboratory Services and Functional Service Provider Solutions that are tailor-made, timely and flexible to meet the evolving study demands of traditional to increasingly complex clinical trials.
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