For Immediate Release
What's the Next Step for Exon Skipping Therapies to Treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?
Contact: Kathryn Ryan
914-740-2250
kryan@liebertpub.com
New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2017—A team of leading European clinicians and scientists presents a unique perspective on how to move forward in the development of exon skipping therapies to treat the severe muscle-wasting disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Following recent approval by the U.S. regulatory authorities of the first such drug for DMD, the team of authors representing key European regulatory agencies, academic medical centers, industry, and patient groups discusses the main challenges and opportunities for the development and regulatory approval of these therapeutic agents going forward, in an article published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers. The article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.
The article entitled "Development of Exon Skipping Therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Critical Review and a Perspective on the Outstanding Issues" was coauthored by Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Pavel Balabanov, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Leiden University Medical Center (The Netherlands), Newcastle University (Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.), Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (London, U.K.), European Medicines Agency, Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittle und Medizinprodukte (Bonn, Germany), Medicines Evaluation Board (Utrecht, The Netherlands), Catholic University and Centro Clinico Nemo (Rome, Italy), UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (London, U.K.), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia (Portugal), and United Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
The authors review the mechanism of action, effectiveness, and limitations of the first-in-class antisense oligonucleotide (AON) drug eteplirsen, which targets exon 51 in patients with DMD. Only 13-14% of patients with DMD have a mutation in exon 51 and would benefit from this treatment, with other small patient clusters requiring distinct AON drugs that each target a different exon. Based on the most recent scientific and medical evidence in the field and the views expressed by European regulators, the authors offer their perspective on the most efficient strategy for developing future exon skipping drugs for DMD, which would deliver effective treatments to patients as quickly as possible. The discussion includes the use of biomarkers in AON drug development, approaches for developing AONS for very small groups of patients, regulatory tools and incentives in the EU, and the potential for obtaining "class" or "platform" approval for AON drugs.
“This paper exemplifies the journal’s commitment to advancing the field through consensus, or where necessary, healthy debate among all stakeholders. The piece can also be seen as a call for more candid dialogue with regulatory agencies,” says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.
About the Journal
Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center and Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.
About the Society
The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society is an open, non-profit forum to foster academia- and industry-based research and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The society brings together the expertise from different angles of oligonucleotide research to create synergies and to bring the field of oligonucleotides to its full therapeutic potential.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Assay and Drug Development Technologies, Applied In Vitro Toxicology, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
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