CHMP Delivers Opinion on Translarna™ for Conversion to Full Authorization
- Conference call to be held at 8:45 am EDT -
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., Sept. 15, 2023 - PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has given a negative opinion on the conversion of the conditional marketing authorization to full marketing authorization of Translarna™ (ataluren) for the treatment of nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy (nmDMD). The negative opinion also applies to the renewal of the existing conditional authorization. PTC plans to submit a request for re-examination per EMA guidelines. Translarna will remain on the market and available to patients with nmDMD until the re-examination process is completed. Based on CHMP procedural guidance, the opinion following the re-examination process would be expected to occur in January 2024, with EC ratification of the opinion within the following 67 days.
“We are surprised and extremely disappointed by the CHMP decision, given the well-established and favorable safety and efficacy profile of Translarna,” said Matthew B. Klein, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, PTC Therapeutics. “Of course, this decision is most devastating for the hundreds of boys and young men in Europe with nonsense mutation DMD, for whom no other approved therapies are available. We will be submitting a request for re-examination to the CHMP to reverse this opinion, as we have done previously in the regulatory history of Translarna in Europe.”
Translarna received conditional marketing authorization in Europe in 2014 based on the results of Study 007, and the conditional authorization was renewed in 2017. As part of the renewal of the conditional marketing authorization, PTC agreed to a specific obligation to conduct a third placebo-controlled trial, Study 041. PTC shared the results of Study 041, which included nominally statistically significant results on several key endpoints in the overall enrolled Intent-to-Treat population of 359 boys even though it did not meet statistical significance in the primary analysis subgroup.
The data from Study 041, as well as data from the two previous placebo-controlled trials—Studies 007 and 020 — formed the basis of the CHMPs review and decision. Additional supportive evidence of efficacy included robust meta-analyses demonstrating highly statistically significant benefit on several key disease endpoints capturing different aspects of DMD, including the Six-Minute Walk Distance test (6MWD), North Star Ambulatory Assessment, and Timed Function Tests. In addition, analyses of the real-world STRIDE registry, which includes 300 boys with an average treatment duration of over 5.5 years, demonstrating that long-term Translarna therapy delays the time to loss of ambulation by 3.5 years were included as part of the data package to confirm long-term meaningful treatment benefit. In addition, Translarna has shown a favorable safety profile, with over 3,000 patients treated to date.
In the re-examination, PTC plans to focus on the clear and consistent evidence of benefit recorded in the overall population of 700 boys included in all studies (007, 020 and 041). In addition, PTC will address the decision to designate a different primary analysis subgroup in Study 041 than the subgroup previously demonstrated to be most responsive to a treatment effect on 6MWD in Studies 007 and 020. PTC will also address concerns raised regarding the robustness of the STRIDE data in supporting long-term treatment benefit.
Today's Conference Call
PTC will hold a conference call at 8:45 am EDT today to discuss this news. To access the call by phone, please click here to register and you will be provided with dial-in details. To avoid delays, we recommend participants dial in to the conference call 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. The webcast conference call can be accessed on the Investor section of the PTC website at https://ir.ptcbio.com/events-