The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended 17 drugs for approval at its December meeting, bringing the total for 2024 to 114. That is up from the 77 drugs recommended for approval in 2023, of which 39 were novel.
The EMA has changed its mind about an earlier decision that the risks of Leqembi (lecanemab) outweigh the benefits and is now recommending the Alzheimer’s disease drug is approved for a subgroup of patients. That follows an appeal by Eisai Co. Ltd. and a re-examination of the data, after details relating to 274 patients with two copies of the ApoE4 gene were removed from the file.
The first bispecific antibody to win regulatory approval is about to make a comeback 10 years after being taken off the market in Europe for commercial reasons. Catumaxomab, then called Removab, and now reborn with the brand name Korjuny, received a positive opinion for the treatment of malignant ascites from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP,) at its monthly meeting Oct. 14 to 17.
For once, the EMA appears to have pipped the U.S. FDA to the post, with Pfizer Inc.’s hemophilia A and B therapy Hympavzi (marstacimab) recommended for approval in Europe on Sept. 20, while the U.S. PDUFA date is set for the fourth quarter of the year.
Advanz Pharma Ltd. has won a stay on the withdrawal of its primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) drug, Ocaliva (obeticholic acid), after the European Commission (EC) said on Sept. 3 that the conditional marketing approval should be revoked. Following that, London-based Advanz launched a legal challenge, announcing on Sept 5 that the General Court of the EU has temporarily suspended the EC’s decision. As a result, the conditional marketing authorization for Ocaliva remains in place until further notice from the court, and the 7,000 existing patients – and new ones – will still have access to the farnesoid X receptor agonist.
Astellas Pharma Inc.’s claudin (CLDN) 18.2-targeted monoclonal antibody, zolbetuximab, received a positive opinion from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and could be the first CLDN18.2 molecule to be approved in Europe if it receives final approval.
The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended approval of 14 drugs and the extension of the label of 11 others at its July meeting, but, inevitably, it was the decision to turn down the Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi (lecanemab) that stirred the greatest reaction.
Astellas Pharma Inc.’s claudin (CLDN) 18.2-targeted monoclonal antibody, zolbetuximab, received a positive opinion from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and could be the first CLDN18.2 molecule to be approved in Europe if it receives final approval.
Biogen Inc. and partner Eisai Co. Ltd. said the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a negative opinion on the marketing bid for lecanemab in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild AD. The humanized anti-soluble aggregated amyloid-beta monoclonal antibody is approved in the U.S., Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Israel, and is being sold in the U.S., where it’s branded Leqembi, as well as Japan and China. Eisai, of Tokyo, will ask the CHMP to re-examine the matter.
Those affected by primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) are fighting back against the recommendation by the EMA that the marketing authorization for Ocaliva (obeticholic acid), a second-line treatment used by 7,000 patients in Europe, be withdrawn. Earlier today, July 25, patients and their supporters staged a protest outside the European Commission building in Brussels to oppose EMA’s position that Ocaliva’s conditional license should be revoked.
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