Viela Bio (PRNewsfoto/Viela Bio)
Gaithersburg, MD—April 18, 2019 – Viela Bio today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for the Company’s anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody inebilizumab, an investigational monotherapy for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). NMOSD is a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system.
“The Breakthrough Therapy Designation for inebilizumab is based on results from the largest monotherapy study ever conducted in NMOSD,” said Jorn Drappa, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research & Development at Viela Bio. “Inebilizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody designed to bind with high affinity to CD19 and deplete a broad range of B cells, including autoantibody-secreting plasmablasts and CD19-expressing plasma cells. We continue our efforts to bring inebilizumab to patients suffering from this devastating disease for which there are currently no approved medicines.”
Breakthrough Therapy Designation is designed to expedite the development and regulatory review of medicines intended to treat a serious condition that have shown encouraging early clinical results which may demonstrate substantial improvement on a clinically significant endpoint over available medicines. The designation for inebilizumab is based on data from the pivotal N-MOmentum study evaluating inebilizumab as monotherapy.
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