European commission grants "orphan" status for new acute myeloid leukaemia...( Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals the pha...)

European commission grants "orphan" status for new acute myeloid leukaemia treatment

Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corporation (NYSE:AHP),announced today that the European Commission has designated Mylotarg(gemtuzumab ozogamicin)as an "orphan medicinal product." The Commission decision follows a positive opinion adopted on 13 September 2000 by the Committee on Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA).

"We anticipate that Mylotarg will become an important treatment option for European patients aged 60 and over with CD33-positive relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)," says L. Patrick Gage, Ph.D., President, Wyeth-Ayerst Research. "Its mechanism of action focuses on using antibody-antigen specificity to target delivery of potent chemotherapy to myeloid leukaemic cells. This compound represents the first product from Wyeth's promising oncology pipeline."

As a designated orphan medicinal product, Mylotarg will have access to the Commission's "centralised" procedure for assessment of the marketing authorisation application. Orphan medicinal products are intended to treat patients with rare life-threatening or very serious diseases for which no satisfactory method of treatment exists or where the product will be of significant benefit.

Orphan medicinal products do not automatically qualify for approval under "exceptional circumstances," but companies that sponsor orphan products receive incentives for bringing these products to the market and to the patient. Such incentives include the possibility of protocol assistance from the EMEA and fee reductions for all types of centralised marketing authorisation evaluation activities. If approved by the EMEA, Mylotarg would be the first product available in Europe from a new class of anticancer therapy known as "antibody-targeted chemotherapy." Mylotarg utilizes a patented linker technology with a novel potent anti-tumor antibiotic, calicheamicin.

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Contact: Roseann Ward
roseann.ward@ketchumcomms.co.uk
44-0-207-465-8752
Ketchum
14-Nov-2000

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