Countdown | Global Progress in DMD Gene Therapy Drug Launches and Research

发布时间: 2023-04-20

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, fatal genetic disease caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes for dystrophin, a protein that protects muscles from damage. This results in a loss or functional deficiency of dystrophin, leading to a series of muscle disorders.

 

DMD is an X-linked recessive disease and a severe form of muscular dystrophy. The absence of functional dystrophin in DMD patients leads to cellular damage during muscle contraction, resulting in cell death, inflammation, and muscle tissue fibrosis. Approximately 1 in every 5000 newborn boys is affected by the disease. There is currently no cure for DMD, and standard treatments involve the use of medication to alleviate muscle spasms and pain, physical and rehabilitation therapy to maintain movement, and the use of breathing and heart assist devices to prolong survival and improve quality of life.

 

In recent years, several drugs for the treatment of DMD have been approved (see Table 1), including four types of antisense oligonucleotide therapy. Antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy achieves its therapeutic goals by exon skipping, but these drugs can only cover a small number of specific mutation sites in DMD patients. In addition to exon skipping, gene transfer therapy and other methods are a better choice, and multiple DMD gene therapy drugs are currently in clinical trials (see Table 2). The Alliance Secretariat is paying attention to the progress of DMD and will provide a summary of the currently available and in-development or clinical DMD drugs. The information presented in this report was collected from various sources on the internet and if there are any errors or omissions, please do not hesitate to point them out.

 

Table 1. Approved drugs for treating DMD

Item number

Year of announcement

Drug name

Development company

Therapy type

Approval status

Target population

1

September 2016

Exondys 51

(Eteplirsen)

Sarepta Therapeutics

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy

FDA approval for marketing.

Used for treating patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) with a mutation amenable to exon 51 skipping.

2

February 2017

Emflaza(deflazacort)

PTC Therapeutics

Corticosteroids

FDA approval for marketing.

Used for the treatment of muscle inflammation, edema, and necrosis following muscle injury, resulting in recurrent fibrosis and progressive decline in muscle function.

3

August 2014

Translarna(Ataluren)

PTC Therapeutics

Protein repair therapy

EMA approval for marketing, FDA granted orphan drug status in 2018 and approved for marketing.

Used for the treatment of patients with DMD caused by nonsense mutations (patients over 2 years of age who can walk).

4

December 2019

Vyondys 53

(Golodirsen)

Sarepta Therapeutics

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy

FDA approval for marketing.

Used for the treatment of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) confirmed to be amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy based on genetic testing.

5

August 2020

Viltepso(Viltolarsen)

Nippon Shinyaku/NS-Pharma

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy

FDA approval for marketing.

Used for the treatment of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) caused by exon 53 skipping mutations.

6

February 2021

Amondys 45

(Casimersen)

Sarepta Therapeutics

Antisense oligonucleotide therapy

FDA approval for marketing.

Used for the treatment of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) caused by exon 45 skipping gene mutations.