Harmony Biosciences Announces File Acceptance Of Its New Drug Application For Pitolisant
In early 2018, NN put together a panel of people with narcolepsy (PWNs), doctors, and advocates to petition the FDA to grant fast-track status to new medications. We continue to advocate for the needs of PWNs, including attending Rare Disease Week where we will have the opportunity to meet with Congressional staff to influence legislators and stress the need for more narcolepsy treatment options.
We are excited to learn that Harmony Biosciences, LLC (Harmony) has a new announcement regarding a possible treatment for narcolepsy.
Per a press release by Harmony, they announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing the New Drug Application (NDA) for its investigational product,
“The impact of narcolepsy can be significant and severely disruptive to everyday life for up to 200,000 Americans living with this disorder,†said John C. Jacobs, President and CEO at Harmony. “This is an important step for patients and for our company, whose mission is to develop novel treatment options for people living with rare and orphan diseases.â€
“Pitolisant offers a novel approach to the treatment of both EDS and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy, for which there have been no new treatment options in over 15 years,†said Jeffrey M. Dayno, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Harmony. “We look forward to working with the FDA during its review of the pitolisant NDA, with our hope of being able to offer this new treatment option to help address an important unmet medical need for people living with narcolepsy.â€
The NDA submission is based on results from the clinical development program in narcolepsy, which included over 300 patients, some of whom were treated for up to five years. It also included safety data in over 1500 patients across multiple patient populations.
About Pitolisant
Pitolisant is an investigational medication in the US that is not approved by the FDA. It was granted orphan designation for the treatment of narcolepsy, Fast Track designation for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy, and Breakthrough Therapy designation for the treatment of cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy. Pitolisant, a first-in-class medication, is a potent and highly selective histamine 3 (H₃) receptor antagonist/inverse agonist; it enhances the activity of histaminergic neurons in the brain that function to improve a patient’s wakefulness and inhibit attacks of cataplexy. It was designed and developed by Bioprojet, who has marketed the product in Europe since its approval by the European Medicines Agency in 2016. Harmony’s goal is to obtain FDA approval to market this new medication in the US in 2019. If approved,
To read the full press release, go here.
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Date Created: February 19th, 2019
Last Updated: February 20th, 2019