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A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has recommended against the approval of Sarepta's eteplirsen, a drug intended to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Two other experimental DMD drugs have already been rejected. The recommendation came despite the emotional testimony of children who had apparently seen improvements due to the experimental treatment. Representative Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. also spoke on behalf of a constituent with DMD. However, concerns were raised about the small sample size of the trial:
"I am very sorry to say that approval of eteplirsen based on today's data would set a dangerously low bar for all drugs in the future," said Gottschalk, a senior fellow at the National Center for Health Research, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. "Treatments for rare diseases can be proven on small samples, but not based on 12 patients in a poorly designed study with ambiguous results. These boys and their families deserve better."
The problem, FDA scientists said earlier in the day, is that, due to its small size and design, the study Sarepta submitted to the agency cannot prove that eteplirsen deserves credit for the boys' ability to remain on their feet. Although the company says dozens more boys are now taking the drug, its case with the FDA rests on only the study involving the 12 boys in the orange t-shirts. Except for the first 24 weeks, all of the boys in that study have been taking the drug. With no long-term placebo group, Sarepta chose to compare them to untreated boys from a registry of DMD patients. These types of studies tend to have more favorable results than studies that randomly assign participants to the active treatment or a placebo, Dr. Robert Temple, deputy director of the FDA office that evaluates nervous system drugs, told the advisory committee.
The advisory panel's 7-3 recommendation (with three abstentions) is not the final word on eteplirsen, but the FDA generally follows such recommendations. Sarepta's shares plummeted on the news.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ledow on Thursday April 28 2016, @12:29PM
Wonder what Michael Jackson, his family and lawyers would say about that?
You can't just let someone prescribe ANYTHING, based on a patient's wishes. That would basically turn doctors into legal drug-dealers, bought-out advertisers, and unaccountable murderers overnight (literally, the doctors are the people who judge whether someone is of sound mind or not, and then if they get them to write out or forge a bit of paper, they can kill off the patient with no legal comeback).