Trevena receives FDA Breakthrough Therapy for Oliceridine in pain
Trevena, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of biased ligands targeting G protein coupled receptors, has announced the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to the company's lead product candidate, intravenous oliceridine (TRV130), for the management of moderate-to-severe acute pain. Following two successful phase II studies, oliceridine is now in phase III development. The ATHENA-1 safety and tolerability study is ongoing, with pivotal studies expected to begin in the second quarter of 2016.
“We are delighted that the FDA has chosen to grant Breakthrough Therapy designation to oliceridine,” said Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., chief executive officer. “There is an urgent need for a novel analgesic that delivers powerful pain relief with improved safety and tolerability. We believe this designation recognizes our promising phase II study data for oliceridine, which showed encouraging differentiation from morphine. We look forward to working even more closely with the FDA to facilitate our development of oliceridine.”
Breakthrough Therapy designation is granted by the FDA to new therapies intended to treat serious conditions, and for which preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial clinical improvement over available therapies. For oliceridine, the designation request included the full study results of both of the company’s recent phase II studies. Breakthrough Therapy designation provides all the benefits of the Fast Track program, as well as more intensive FDA guidance on preparing an efficient drug development program and eligibility for rolling review and priority review.
Oliceridine (TRV130) was designed to optimize μ opioid receptor pharmacology to deliver an improved analgesic profile, and was previously granted Fast Track designation by the FDA. Oliceridine is the first μ receptor G protein pathway selective modulator (μGPS)—a biased μ opioid receptor ligand that in preclinical studies activated pathways associated with analgesia while avoiding pathways that can promote respiratory depression and gastrointestinal dysfunction and limit analgesia. In phase II, intravenous oliceridine demonstrated rapid and powerful analgesic efficacy with reduced frequency of opioid-related adverse events including nausea, vomiting, and hypoventilation compared to intravenous morphine. Trevena believes that oliceridine may offer an improved safety and tolerability profile compared to conventional opioid analgesics while providing powerful pain relief to patients. Trevena anticipates that the initial market opportunity for oliceridine will be in the acute care settings, with a focus on moderate to severe acute pain in the hospital.
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