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July 17, 2014
Pharming And Salix Announce FDA Approval Of Ruconest® For The Treatment Of Acute Angioedema Attacks In Patients With Hereditary Angioedema (HAE)
- Pharming Group NV ( EURONEXT: PHARM) and Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SLXP), today announced that the Food and Drug Administration has approved RUCONEST® (C1 Esterase Inhibitor [Recombinant]) 50 IU/kg for the treatment of acute angioedema attacks in adult and adolescent patients with hereditary angioedema (HAE). Because of the limited number of patients with laryngeal attacks, effectiveness was not established in HAE patients with laryngeal attacks.
“We are pleased that RUCONEST® provides the HAE community with another FDA-approved option for treating painful and debilitating HAE attacks,” said Anthony Castaldo, President of the Hereditary Angioedema Association (US HAEA), a non-profit patient services and research organization with a membership of over 5,000 HAE patients in the United States.
RUCONEST® is a recombinant C1 esterase inhibitor that can be administered by the patient after receiving training by a healthcare provider. HAE attacks stem from a deficiency of the C1 inhibitor protein in the blood. HAE is a rare inherited genetic condition that is often not properly diagnosed until later in a patient’s life as the symptoms of an attack can mirror someone experiencing an allergic reaction. Severe, painful swelling can occur at any time, which means most people suffering from HAE deal with the constant fear of when their next attack might surface and how that might impair their lives and those around them.
“Results in the pivotal clinical trial demonstrate RUCONEST® is a safe and effective option for the treatment of acute hereditary angioedema attacks,” said Dr. Marc Riedl of the US HAEA Angioedema Center at the University of California – San Diego and primary investigator of the phase III study. “At the US HAEA Angioedema Center, we strive to better the lives of those suffering from hereditary angioedema and part of that is ensuring patients have access to advanced treatments that have been proven to work in clinical trials. RUCONEST is an important addition to those treatment options.”
Sijmen de Vries, CEO of Pharming, said: “The approval of RUCONEST® in the US is a very significant milestone for Pharming. For many years we have strived to make RUCONEST® - the first recombinant replacement therapy for C1Inhibitor deficiency - available to the HAE patient community in the US, because we were aware of the great value and benefit this product adds to patients’ lives. Today we are proud to have achieved this goal in the US.”
“RUCONEST® is a much needed treatment option for patients suffering from acute attacks of hereditary angioedema. Until now, there hasn’t been an FDA approved recombinant C1 esterase inhibitor option to treat symptoms of HAE,” said Carolyn J. Logan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Salix. “The unpredictability of HAE can make patients feel uncertain about when their next attack might strike, which is why it is important to have a medicine that can be administered by the patient that resolves an attack. Salix is proud to make RUCONEST® available.”
The FDA approval of the Biologics License Agreements (BLA) for RUCONEST® for treatment of acute angioedema attacks in patients with HAE is based on a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III trial (RCT) which included an open-label extension (OLE) phase and is supported by the results of two additional RCTs and two additional OLE studies. The pivotal RCT and OLE studies analyzed the results from 44 subjects who experienced 170 HAE attacks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the time to beginning of symptom relief, assessed using patient-reported responses to two questions about the change in overall severity of their HAE attack symptoms after the start of treatment. These were assessed at regular time points for each of the affected anatomical locations for up to 24 hours. To achieve the primary endpoint, a patient had to have a positive response to both questions along with persistence of improvement at the next assessment time (i.e., the same or better response).
A statistically significant difference in the time to beginning of symptom relief was observed in the intent-to-treat population (n=75) between RUCONEST and placebo (p=0.031, log-rank test); the median time to beginning of symptom relief was 90 minutes for RUCONEST patients (n=44) and 152 minutes for placebo patients (n=31).
RUCONEST® is manufactured by Pharming Group NV in the Netherlands. Salix has licensed exclusive rights from Pharming to commercialize RUCONEST® in North America and market RUCONEST® for the treatment of acute HAE attack symptoms.
Salix currently plans on making RUCONEST® accessible to patients later in 2014.