Therapy Areas: AIDS & HIV
Rocket Pharmaceuticals Receives FDA Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy and Fast Track Designations for RP-L102 Gene Therapy for Fanconi Anemia
28 November 2018 - - The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy and Fast Track designations to RP-L102, US-based gene therapy company Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: RCKT)lentiviral vector -based gene therapy for the treatment of Fanconi Anemia, the company said.

RMAT designation was granted based on the positive efficacy and safety results from the ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of RP-L102 being conducted in Europe.

The RMAT designation was established under the 21st Century Cures Act to help expedite the development and approval of regenerative medicine products, including cell and gene therapies.

In order to be considered for RMAT designation, products must be intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, as well as show preliminary clinical evidence indicating that the product has the potential to address the unmet medical need.

The designation allows for companies to work closely with the FDA on the program's development and includes all the benefits of the FDA's Fast Track and Breakthrough Therapy designations.

The FDA's Fast Track program facilitates the development of products intended to treat serious conditions that have the potential to address unmet medical needs.

The designation enables greater access to the FDA for the purpose of expediting the product's development, review and potential approval.

In addition, the Fast Track program allows for eligibility for Accelerated Approval and Priority Review, if relevant criteria are met, and Rolling Review, which means a company can submit completed sections of its Biologic License Application for review by FDA, rather than waiting until every section is completed before the entire application can be reviewed.

Rocket plans to initiate a clinical trial of RP-L102 for FA in early 2019 utilizing no conditioning and "Process B" which incorporates higher cell doses, transduction enhancers, and commercial-grade vector manufacturing and cell processing.

The global trial is expected to enroll approximately 12 FA patients at the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, Hospital Niño Jesús/CIEMAT, and other leading centers in the US and in the EU.

RP-L102 is Rocket's lentiviral vector -based gene therapy in development for patients with FA with Rocket's collaboration partners at Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) in Spain, CIBER-Rare Diseases and IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz.

The International Fanconi Anemia Gene Therapy Working Group helped the development of new generation of FA gene therapy programs, which began with a HIV-1-derived, self-inactivating lentiviral vector.

RP-L102's lentiviral vector carries the FANC-A gene as part of the PGK-FANCA-WPRE expression cassette which includes a phosphoglycerate kinase promoter and an optimized woodchuck hepatitis virus posttranscriptional regulatory element.

The ex vivo administration process begins with the removal and isolation of hematopoietic stem cells using a CD34+ selection process. Autologous genetically modified CD34+ enriched hematopoietic cells (fresh or cryopreserved) are infused back into patients to restore function.

RP-L102 is currently being studied in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the European Union with an Investigational Medicinal Product Dossier in place with the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products.

The US Food and Administration accepted the company's Investigational New Drug application for RP-L102 utilising "Process B" which incorporates higher cell doses, transduction enhancers, and commercial-grade vector.

RP-L102 has been granted Orphan Drug, Fast Track, and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designations for the treatment of Fanconi Anemia type A in the United States and Orphan Drug designation in Europe.

Fanconi Anemia is a rare pediatric disease characterized by bone marrow failure, malformations and cancer predisposition. The primary cause of death among patients with FA is bone marrow failure, which typically occurs during the first decade of life.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, when available, corrects the hematologic component of FA, but requires myeloablative conditioning, which is highly toxic for the patient. HSCT is frequently complicated by graft versus host disease and also increases the risk of solid tumors, mainly squamous cell carcinomas.

Approximately 60-70% of patients with FA have a FANC-A gene mutation, which encodes for a protein essential for DNA repair.

Mutation in the FANC-A gene leads to chromosomal breakage and increased sensitivity to oxidative and environmental stress. Chromosome fragility induced by DNA-alkylating agents such as mitomycin-C or diepoxybutane is the 'gold standard' test for FA diagnosis.

The DEB assay can further differentiate FA patients from somatic mosaic patients. Somatic mosaicism occurs when there is a spontaneous reversion mutation that can lead to a mixed chimerism of corrected and uncorrected bone marrow cells leading to stabilization or correction of an FA patient's blood counts in the absence of any administered therapy.

Somatic mosaicism provides strong rationale for the development of FA gene therapy and demonstrates the selective advantage of gene-corrected hematopoietic cells in FA1.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals is an emerging, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing first-in-class gene therapy treatment options for rare, devastating diseases.

Rocket's multi-platform development approach applies the well-established lentiviral vector and adeno-associated viral vector gene therapy platforms.

The company's lead clinical programme is a LVV-based gene therapy for the treatment of Fanconi Anemia, a difficult to treat genetic disease that leads to bone marrow failure and potentially cancer.

Preclinical studies of additional bone marrow-derived disorders are ongoing and target Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency, Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I) and Infantile Malignant Osteopetrosis. Rocket's first AAV-based gene therapy program targets Danon disease, a rare neuromuscular and cardiovascular disease.
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