DRUG APPROVALS BY DR ANTHONY MELVIN CRASTO
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ponatinib
ARIAD Announces Marketing Authorization for Iclusig® (ponatinib) in the European Union
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & LAUSANNE, Switzerland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jul. 2, 2013– ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA) today announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted a marketing authorization for Iclusig® (ponatinib) as an orphan medicinal product for two indications:read all at
http://www.pharmalive.com/eu-oks-blood-cancer-drug-iclusig
Ponatinib (Iclusig, previously AP24534) is an FDA approved oral drug candidate developed by ARIAD Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It is a multi-targeted tyrosine-kinase inhibitor. Some forms of CML, those that have the T315I mutation, are resistant to current therapies such as imatinib. Ponatinib has been designed to be effective against these types of tumors.
Oncologists have complained, however, that many patients can’t afford the “astronomical” cost of $138,000 a year, which makes it one of the most expensive drugs in medicine, and far more expensive than what is needed to pay the development costs.
Ponatinib was approved by the US FDA on December 14, 2012, for patients with resistant or intolerant CML and Ph+ ALL, based on results of the PACE phase II trial reported days earlier at the annual ASH meeting.Because the approval was under the FDA’s accelerated approval program the applicant will be required to carry out additional studies.
The PACE (Ponatinb Ph+ ALL and CML Evaluation) pivotal phase II trial started enrolling patients in September 2010 and is designed to provide definitive clinical data for regulatory approval in this setting. Good results were reported in Dec 2012.
At the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, ARIAD announced from a Phase I study of ponatinib in patients with resistant and refractory chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). The study demonstrated that in chronic-phase CML patients treated with ponatinib, 66 percent of patients in the trial achieved a major cytogenetic response, including 100 percent of patients who also had a T315I mutation
New Drug Approvals 