Orchard Therapeutics announces that OTL-101 has received a designation as promising innovative medicine by UK’s regulatory agency.
Orchard Therapeutics Limited, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing transformative gene therapies for patients with severe inherited orphan diseases, announces that the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted a Promising Innovative Medicine Designation to OTL-101, its lead program for the treatment of adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency, commonly known as ADA-SCID or “bubble baby” disease. OTL-101 is developed in collaboration with University College London (UCL)/Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
This designation indicates that ADA-SCID is a life-threatening condition with high unmet need despite currently available treatment options and that OTL-101 is likely to offer major clinical benefits to patients.
Prof. Bobby Gaspar, Orchard’s Chief Scientific Officer and Professor of Pediatrics at University College London / Institute of Child Health, commented: “We are delighted by the designation of OTL-101 as a Promising Innovative Medicine as it recognizes the significant unmet need in ADA-SCID as well as the major potential clinical benefits of OTL-101 over alternative treatment options”.
The designation as Promising Innovative Medicine is the first step of a two-step process under which OTL-101 can benefit from the Early Access to Medicine Scheme (EAMS). Nicolas Koebel, Senior Vice President for Business Operations at Orchard, added: “With this PIM designation we can potentially make OTL-101 available to UK patients sooner under the Early Access to Medicine Scheme”.
To date, over 40 ADA-SCID patients have been treated with autologous ex-vivo lentiviral gene therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London, UK and UCLA in Los Angeles, California. All patients have survived (100 percent overall survival) with follow-up up to 5 years and the treatment has been shown to restore patients’ immune function, with a favorable safety profile.
Orchard’s development pipeline of autologous ex-vivo gene therapies includes novel treatments for primary immune deficiencies (such as ADA-SCID) and inherited metabolic disorders (such as Sanfilippo syndrome type A).
(Source: B3C Newswire)
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