⦁ Company intends to file NDA for EDSIVO™ in first half of 2018 –
September 25, 2017
Cambridge, MA – Acer Therapeutics Inc., (Nasdaq: ACER), a pharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of therapies for serious rare and ultra-rare diseases with critical unmet medical need, today announced positive results from the pivotal clinical trial of EDSIVO™ (celiprolol) for the treatment of vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS). Acer’s retrospective source verified analysis of the trial data, including the primary and secondary endpoints, confirmed the data from a previously published randomized controlled clinical study of celiprolol(1). Acer will use this pivotal clinical data to support a New Drug Application (NDA) regulatory filing in the U.S. in the first half of 2018. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a group of hereditary disorders of connective tissue. vEDS is the most severe subtype where patients suffer from life threatening arterial dissections and ruptures, as well as intestinal and uterine ruptures. There are currently no FDA approved therapies for vEDS(2). “We have studied celiprolol for nearly two decades in vEDS patients and this is the only drug to ever demonstrate a clinical benefit in this difficult to treat patient population in a randomized, controlled clinical study,” said Pierre Boutouyrie M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the clinical pharmacology service at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital, Greater Paris University Hospitals (AP-HP) and Principal Investigator for the published celiprolol study. “Having established celiprolol as the standard of care in France for vEDS patients, we are excited to collaborate with Acer to help bring celiprolol to U.S. patients who are suffering from this devastating, life-threatening disease.” The previously completed European study, published on October 30, 2010, in The Lancet, was stopped early having achieved statistical significance in its primary endpoints, with arterial dissection or rupture affecting 5 (20%) celiprolol patients and 14 (50%) subjects in the non-treated control group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.36; p-value 0.04). The combined primary and secondary endpoints of intestinal or uterine rupture affected 6 (24%) celiprolol patients and 17 (61%) subjects in the non-treated control group (HR 0.31; p-value 0.01). The study was conducted in 53 patients, who were randomly assigned either a twice daily treatment of celiprolol or no treatment. Mean duration of follow-up was 47 months prior to trial halt. “We are committed to bringing EDSIVO™ to vEDS patients who currently do not have access to this treatment,” said Robert D. Steiner, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Acer. “Our confirmation of the published celiprolol clinical data with an Acer-sponsored retrospective source verified analysis of the trial data represents a critical element of the clinical module in our NDA, which we are diligently building, along with current manufacturing, non-clinical and other components of the regulatory package.” “We continue to successfully rapidly advance our lead product candidate, EDSIVO™, a potential life-saving therapy for patients with vEDS, towards an NDA filing, which we expect to accomplish in the first half of 2018,” said Chris Schelling, CEO and Founder of Acer. “In addition to source verifying a definitive Event-Free Survival endpoint from a previously completed robust clinical study, modernizing manufacturing and assembling other components of the regulatory package, we are executing on a number of key medical affairs focused initiatives for vEDS patients. Specifically, we are setting up Centers of Excellence to optimize patient care, and intend to develop a prospective vEDS Patient Registry and provide integrated care support programs.”
About EDSIVO™ and vEDS Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a group of hereditary disorders of connective tissue. vEDS is the most severe subtype where patients suffer from life threatening arterial dissections and ruptures, as well as intestinal and uterine ruptures. The average mortality is 51 years of age. An Acer commissioned patient-finder study identified 2,200 vEDS patients in the U.S. from an analysis of commercially available patient claims data. However, experts estimate as many as 5,000 patients may be affected. There are currently no FDA-approved therapies for vEDS(2). Acer is advancing EDSIVO™ (celiprolol), a new chemical entity (NCE), for the treatment of vEDS and plans to file a NDA based on a randomized controlled clinical study of celiprolol.(1) In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted EDSIVO™ orphan drug designation for the potential treatment of vEDS.
About Acer Therapeutics Acer, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, is a pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops and intends to commercialize therapies for patients with serious rare and ultra-rare diseases with critical unmet medical need. Acer’s late-stage clinical pipeline includes two candidates for severe genetic disorders for which there are few or no FDA-approved treatments: EDSIVO™ (celiprolol) for vEDS, and ACER-001 (a fully taste-masked, immediate release formulation of sodium phenylbutyrate) for urea cycle disorders (UCD) and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD). There are no FDA-approved drugs for vEDS and MSUD and limited options for UCD, which collectively impact more than 4,000 patients in the United States. Acer’s products have clinical proof-of-concept and mechanistic differentiation, and Acer intends to seek approval for them in the U.S. by using the regulatory pathway established under section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FFDCA, that allows an applicant to rely for approval at least in part on third-party data, which is expected to expedite the preparation, submission, and approval of a marketing application. For more information, visit www.acertx.com.
References
(1) Ong KT, et al. Effect of celiprolol on prevention of cardiovascular events in vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: a prospective randomised, open, blinded-endpoints trial. Lancet. 2010; 376: 1476–84.
(2) Pepin MG, et al. Survival is affected by mutation type and molecular mechanism in vascular Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS type IV) Genet Med. 16: 881-888.
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Investor Contact:
Hans Vitzthum
LifeSci Advisors
Ph: 212-915-2568
hans@lifescieadvisors.com