EMA grants accelerated assessment to Boehringer Ingelheim's Faldaprevir compound

The application for European marketing authorisation of faldaprevir, a potent second generation oral protease inhibitor, has been fully validated and granted accelerated assessment by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Boehringer Ingelheim is seeking marketing approval of faldaprevir in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PegIFN/RBV) for the treatment of a broad range of patients with genotype-1 (GT-1) hepatitis C, including difficult-to-cure populations such as those with HIV co-infection or advanced liver disease.

"Faldaprevir has been studied with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in a broad range of more than 3,300 patients typical of those that doctors see in every day clinical practice. Faldaprevir has demonstrated strong efficacy and a robust safety profile while also offering the convenience of once-daily dosing and no food restrictions," said Professor Klaus Dugi, Corporate Senior Vice President Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim. "The acceptance for accelerated assessment by the EMA supports our position that if approved, faldaprevir will provide an important alternative to currently available hepatitis C treatments."

Accelerated assessment status does not automatically lead to a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) or the granting of a marketing authorization by the European Commission. If approved by the European Commission, faldaprevir could be available for marketing in the EU in the second half of 2014.

The EMA Marketing Authorisation Application is based on a comprehensive clinical development programme for faldaprevir with a particular focus on the Phase III STARTVerso™ trial data, recently presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). These studies include data for faldaprevir in:

• Treatment naïve patients with the majority having benefited from shorter treatment duration and achieved viral cure²
• Difficult-to-cure patient populations such as those with HIV co-infection⁴ or advanced liver disease^2,3
• Patients with the Q80K polymorphism (this mutation is considered to affect the efficacy of other second generation protease inhibitors)²
• Treatment experienced patients who have relapsed, partially responded or failed to respond to previous therapy³