Melbourne-based Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH) and the World Health Organisation Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) have announced that the US FDA has approved moxidectin for the treatment of river blindness in patients aged 12 years and older.
MDGH said the FDA has also awarded MDGH a priority review voucher (PRV).
River blindness is caused by a parasitic worm, Onchocerca volvulus. The disease manifests as severe itching, disfiguring skin conditions and visual impairment, including permanent blindness, caused by the worm’s larvae (microfilariae).
The approval of moxidectin was based on data from two randomised,double-blindd, active controlled clinical studies.
According to the company, each study met its respective primary endpoint, showing a statistically significant superiority of moxidectin over the current standard of care, ivermectin, in suppressing the presence of the microfilariae in skin.
“FDA approval is a momentous achievement for any biopharmaceutical company, but it is a particularly rare and exciting event in the neglected diseases setting,” said Mark Sullivan, founder and managing director of MDGH.
“It takes a broad community to develop a new medicine. FDA approval represents decades of work by thousands of scientists, disease control specialists, expert advisors, community health workers, funders and study participants. We particularly acknowledge the US$13 million investment from the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) as well as the extraordinary persistence and dedication of the team at TDR, without whom this would not have happened.”
“We are delighted about the FDA’s decision,” said TDR director John Reeder. “It is a milestone toward the river blindness endgame and our objective to enable African countries to integrate moxidectin into their elimination strategies.”
“As neglected tropical diseases are endemic in low and middle-income countries, there are limited markets for medicines. Therefore, finding investors willing to support development in these diseases is extremely difficult,” added Mr Sullivan. “However, the introduction of the FDA’s neglected diseases PRV program has created a market around neglected diseases.“
The PRV legislation was designed to encourage development of new drug and biological products for neglected diseases. The PRV, a saleable item, permits the holder to accelerate the review of a new drug application from the standard 10 months to 6 months.
Dr Reeder added, “This voucher to MDGH exemplifies the original spirit of the programme – to create incentives for research and development in neglected diseases.”
MDGH is the first not-for-profit company to register a medicine through the tropical disease PRV program.
“This is exactly what we had in mind when we proposed the PRV program,” said Duke University’s Professor David Ridley, an author of the 2006 paper on which the voucher scheme is based. “The voucher incentive helped Medicines Development for Global Health attract funding to complete testing and registration for a drug that had been on the shelf. I’m delighted that the voucher program is playing a role in treating patients with river blindness, and one day eliminating the disease.”