uniQure Won't Apply for Marketing Renewal of Glybera

uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ:QURE) announced it won’t seek a marketing authorization renewal for Glybera in the European market, which is set to expire in October this year.
As quoted in the press release:

“The decision to not pursue marketing authorization renewal of Glybera in Europe involved a thoughtful and careful evaluation of patient needs and the clinical use of the therapy, and is not related to any risk-benefit concern,” stated Matthew Kapusta, chief executive officer of uniQure.  “Glybera’s usage has been extremely limited and we do not envision patient demand increasing materially in the years ahead.”
Mr. Kapusta added, “In line with our previously announced strategy, we will focus our resources on advancing our hemophilia B program into a pivotal trial, moving our Huntington’s disease program into a clinical proof-of-concept trial, and progressing our research and development collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb.”
In October 2012, the European Commission granted a five-year marketing authorization for Glybera under exceptional circumstances as a treatment for a small subset of patients with familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), an ultra-rare genetic disorder. As part of Glybera’s approval, uniQure was required to establish a global registry for the long-term surveillance of patients, conduct a post-approval clinical study, submit for annual regulatory reassessments and implement additional risk management procedures.  All of these activities required a significant infrastructure for uniQure that included the Company bearing the full costs of maintaining commercial manufacturing capabilities, managing development and validation of numerous assays and supporting regulatory interactions and inspections.
uniQure has initiated discussions with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to discuss steps to wind down these various activities and review plans for ongoing patient monitoring.

Click here to read the full press release.

Source: globenewswire.com