A pre-IND meeting provides an opportunity for an open communication between a drug sponsor and the FDA to discuss the sponsor’s IND development plan and to obtain the agency’s guidance for clinical studies for the sponsor’s new drug candidate. The FDA has confirmed that the clinical development for AQST-108 will be reviewed under the 505(b)(2) pathway as proposed by Aquestive and that no additional studies would be necessary prior to opening the proposed IND Application. The FDA indicated that there appears to be an unmet medical need among patients who resist the standard of care use of intramuscular injection in the treatment of anaphylaxis and that AQST-108 may potentially address some of those unmet needs. Aquestive plans to move forward with opening an IND and initiating its pivotal pharmacokinetic (PK) clinical trials before the end of 2020.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of the pre-IND meeting with the FDA. We look forward to preparing the IND filing and commencing our pivotal PK study before year end,” said Keith J. Kendall, Chief Executive Officer of Aquestive. “Anaphylaxis is a serious condition that impacts a large patient population for which there is a significant unmet need. The only options currently available to patients require an injection and AQST-108 can potentially bring meaningful innovation and positive change for patients. We are focused on providing the first highly portable, easy-to-administer and anxiety-free sublingual film medication to treat this serious condition.”
About AQST-108
AQST-108 is a “first of its kind” oral sublingual film formulation delivering systemic epinephrine that is in development for the treatment of anaphylaxis using Aquestive’s proprietary PharmFilm® technologies.
The data from the previously completed Phase 1 dose escalation study demonstrated that AQST-108 achieved similar ranges of mean values of maximum concentration (Cmax) and time to reach maximum concentration (Tmax) to that reported for injectables EpiPen® and Auvi-Q®, provided a greater total exposure (AUC0-t; area under the curve) than that reported for EpiPen and Auvi-Q, had less interpatient variability when compared to degree of variation (CV%) data reported for EpiPen and Auvi-Q, and was well tolerated, with no study participants discontinuing participation due to an adverse event.
Anaphylaxis is a potentially life-threatening systemic allergic reaction, with an estimated incidence of 50 to 112 episodes per 100,000 people per year. The frequency of hospital admissions for anaphylaxis has increased 500-700% in the last 10-15 years.1 The most common causes of reactions that can include anaphylaxis are medications, foods (such as peanuts), and venom from insect stings. Epinephrine injection is the current standard of treatment intended to reverse the potentially severe manifestation of anaphylaxis, which may include red rash, throat swelling, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal distress and loss of consciousness.
About Aquestive Therapeutics
Aquestive Therapeutics is a specialty pharmaceutical company that applies innovative technology to solve therapeutic problems and improve medicines for patients. Aquestive is advancing a late-stage proprietary product pipeline to treat CNS conditions and provide alternatives to invasively administered standard of care therapies. The Company also collaborates with other pharmaceutical companies to bring new molecules to market using proprietary, best-in-class technologies, like PharmFilm®, and has proven capabilities for drug development and commercialization.
Source: Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc.
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