Veru Provides Update on FDA Advisory Committee Meeting Regarding Emergency Use Authorization of ...
Veru Inc. (NASDAQ: VERU), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel medicines for COVID-19 and other viral ARDS-related diseases and for oncology, announces the results of today’s meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee (PADAC), which reviewed sabizabulin for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in hospitalized moderate to severe COVID-19 patients who are at high risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The advisory committee voted 8-5 that the known and potential benefits of sabizabulin when used for the treatment of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at high risk of ARDS do not outweigh the known and potential risks of sabizabulin. However, there was additional discussion around the clinical trial design aspects of an additional clinical trial as a potential post authorization requirement. FDA will consider the input of the advisory committee as part of their review of the EUA and render a decision on the Emergency Use Authorization.
MIAMI, FL, Nov. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veru Inc. (NASDAQ: VERU), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel medicines for COVID-19 and other viral ARDS-related diseases and for oncology, announces the results of today’s meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee (PADAC), which reviewed sabizabulin for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in hospitalized moderate to severe COVID-19 patients who are at high risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The advisory committee voted 8-5 that the known and potential benefits of sabizabulin when used for the treatment of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at high risk of ARDS do not outweigh the known and potential risks of sabizabulin. However, there was additional discussion around the clinical trial design aspects of an additional clinical trial as a potential post authorization requirement. FDA will consider the input of the advisory committee as part of their review of the EUA and render a decision on the Emergency Use Authorization.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the FDA as we continue our efforts to ensure that this product is available to patients in a timely manner,” said Mitchell Steiner, M.D., Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Veru.
“In a still evolving COVID-19 pandemic taking the lives of over 300 U.S. citizens a day and with the threat of new virus variants looming that may not be as easily treated with the limited array of presently used therapies, there is an urgent need for newer therapies with much greater effectiveness than what is available. Sabizabulin with its unique action as a microtubular disruptor, both reducing inflammation and viral replication independent of virus variant, shows compelling promise,” said Erik Swenson, M.D. Professor of Medicine, Physiology, and Biophysics, University of Washington, and former Chairman of PADAC. “In a recently published well-executed double-blind placebo-controlled trial of patients with respiratory compromise and at high risk of developing ARDS, sabizabulin reduced absolute mortality at 60 days by 20.5%, compared to 0-6% for all other available drugs. In the long history of drug trials for patients with severe respiratory failure over many decades, there has never been a drug to show such dramatic protection.”
“Adding sabizabulin to the cadre of therapies among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is crucial in the effort to reduce mortality among a group of patients who have seen the least reduction in death despite newer treatments and approaches,” said Christian Sandrock, M.D. Division Vice Chief of Internal Medicine and Director of Critical Care University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.
