Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Astrazeneca plc, partners on the antisense oligonucleotide inhibitor eplontersen, said interim phase III data showed the candidate had a positive impact on disease progression in patients with hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloid polyneuropathy, giving them confidence to plan for a U.S. FDA NDA filing in the indication before the end of 2022.
The U.S. FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee took up the complicated matter of Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s sNDA for Nuplazid (pimavanserin) to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Alzheimer’s disease psychosis (ADP).
Shares in Addex Therapeutics Ltd. (Zurich:ADXN) dropped 48% June 17 on news that the company had terminated a pivotal phase IIb/III study of dipraglurant as a potential treatment for dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease.
Alzheimer’s experts have suggested that future research may involve combination therapies after yet another trial failure involving a drug targeting amyloid – in this case Roche Holding AG’s crenezumab. Originally discovered by Swiss biotech AC Immune SA, of Lausanne, crenezumab failed to slow or prevent cognitive decline in people with a certain mutation that causes early onset in a closely watched trial.
The FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee posted briefing documents related to the June 17 meeting, set to consider Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s sNDA for Nuplazid (pimavanserin) to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Alzheimer’s disease psychosis (ADP). Although shares of the San Diego-based firm (NASDAQ:ACAD) stayed in the black, closing at $18.77, up $2.52, or 15.5%, the briefing docs did not bring uniformly good news, echoing some of the concerns spelled out in an earlier complete response letter.
Following a negative phase II/III study of an investigational treatment for major depressive disorder, Praxis Precision Medicines Inc. is dropping staff from the payroll and refocusing the company’s resources on tremor and epilepsy. The Aria study of PRAX-114, a positive allosteric modulator extrasynaptic GABA receptor, missed its primary endpoint, statistical significance as measured on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. It also missed the study’s secondary endpoints.
Four scientists have shared the 2022 Kavli Prize in neuroscience, "for pioneering the discovery of genes underlying a range of serious brain disorders," together and separately.
Pharnext SAS has completed recruitment of an FDA-requested second phase III trial of its lead product, PXT-3003, in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A), but now needs to raise €50 million (US$53.9 million) to stay solvent until the data read out in Q4 2023.
Solid phase III top-line results from a study in India for treating stroke with PMZ-1620 (sovateltide) have prodded Pharmazz Inc. to rethink its path to the clinic in the U.S. While the privately held company plans to apply for marketing authorization from the Indian Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, it also had planned to talk to the FDA about launching a phase II study. But since the new data are so solid, it may ask for an IND for a phase III study in the U.S., with the expectation that the number of participants would jump from 158 in the Indian study to as many as 400 to 500 participants in the U.S. and Europe, Anil Gulati, Pharmazz’s CEO and founder, told BioWorld.
The recent online publication of findings from the University of Southern California ataxia working group called Enigma served to fuel more interest in the simmering drug development space of Friederichs’s ataxia (FRDA), where a handful of gene therapies and other approaches, plus one promising small-molecule treatment, are in the works.
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