Sarepta's Approval Woes

I briefly mentioned Sarepta and etiplirsen, their proposed therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in September. In that post, I made reference to the "delirious fun of investing in biotech". Well, the company recently got some regulatory news that illustrates that point even more clearly. The FDA told Sarepta that it would not get accelerated approval for the drug, and that sent the stock into a mineshaft (and infuriated the DMD community, as you might well think). Matthew Herper at Forbes has some good background on the story here Etiplirsen is one of these drugs aimed at a small market (one particular DMD mutation). And the clinical data were pretty thin: It can be hard to imagine saying no to a plea like that – but sometimes that is the FDA’s job. As one muscular dystrophy expert told me when I wrote about Sarepta’s results earlier this year, it was always possible that it might be “too much to hope for” to think that eteplirsen could be approved based on the data so far. Eteplirsen was studied in only twelve boys, half of whom received the medicine immediately, the other half of whom initially got placebo but then switched to taking the drug. Those who started on the medicine earlier have higher levels of dystrophin, at least according to muscle biopsies, and appeared to be able to walk a greater distance in six minutes, a sign that their muscles are deteriorating less quickly. Unfortunately, great results from small trials have a history of not bearin...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Clinical Trials Source Type: blogs