Boehringer chases approval for anti-Pradaxa drug
pharmafile | March 3, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Boehringer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pradaxa, bleeding, dabigatran etexilate, idarucizumab
Boehringer Ingelheim is launching new drug applications for its investigational treatment to reverse the effects of its blood-thinning drug Pradaxa.
The German giant submitted regulatory applications with the EMA, FDA and Health Canada, seeking approval of idarucizumab, a specific reversal agent that stops the blood-thinning effects of the anticoagulant Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) in patients with potentially life-threatening bleeding.
Pradaxa was the first widely-approved drug in a new generation of oral anticoagulants, and is now marketed in over 100 countries for the prevention of stroke or treatment of blood clots in at-risk people.
But six years after its regulatory clearance Pradaxa and other oral anticoagulants are still dogged by safety concerns, and Boehringer is contesting lawsuits in the US after reports of severe and fatal bleeding.
An antidote for Pradaxa would be clinically useful in situations where its anticoagulant effect cause a patient to bleed too much or uncontrollably.
Boehringer presented Phase II data at the American Society of Hematology annual conference in San Francisco, which found that infusions of idarucizumab – which was granted breakthrough therapy status by the FDA in June 2014 – successfully reverses the anticoagulant effect of Pradaxa.
Professor Jörg Kreuzer, vice president of medicine therapeutic area cardiovascular at Boehringer says: “The submissions for idarucizumab mark the first regulatory submissions for a specific reversal agent to a novel oral anticoagulant. Idarucizumab is being developed to provide physicians with a specifically targeted reversal agent for Pradaxa patients in rare emergency situations.”
The manufacturers of similar anticoagulants – Bayer and Janssen’s Xarelto (rivaroxaban), and Pfizer and BMS’ Eliquis (apixaban) – are working on other investigational drugs that can block the effects of anticoagulants in collaboration with Portola Pharmaceuticals, who registered a Phase III study of an inhibitor drug, PRT4445, in February. BMS and Pfizer announced favourable Phase III results of its inhibitor drug Andexanet Alfa in November.
Lilian Anekwe
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