New Financial and Research Models for Pediatric Orphan Drug Development - Focus on the NCATS TRND Program

How is the Pharmaceutical Industry Structured to Optimize Pediatric Drug Development? Existing Pediatric Structure Models and Proposed Recommendations for Structural Enhancement

BACKGROUND

Pediatric regulations enacted in both Europe and the USA have disrupted the pharmaceutical industry, challenging business and drug development processes, and organizational structures. Over the last decade, with science and innovation evolving, industry has moved from a reactive to a proactive mode, investing in building appropriate structures and capabilities as part of their business strategy to better tackle the challenges and opportunities of pediatric drug development.

METHODS

The EFGCP Children's Medicines Working Party and the IQ Pediatric working group have joined their efforts to survey their member company representatives to understand how pharmaceutical companies are organized to fulfill their regulatory obligations and optimize their pediatric drug development programs.

RESULTS

Key success factors and recommendations for a fit-for-purpose Pediatric Expert Group (PEG) were identified.

CONCLUSION

Pediatric structures and expert groups were shown to be important to support optimization of the development of pediatric medicines.

Acceleration of rare disease therapeutic development: a case study of AGIL-AADC

Rare-disease drug development is both scientifically and commercially challenging. This case study highlights Agilis Biotherapeutics (Agilis), a small private biotechnology company that has developed the most clinically advanced adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy for the brain. In an international collaboration led by Agilis with National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health, Agilis' gene therapy for aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase deficiency (AADC), AGIL-AADC, was granted biologics license application (BLA)-ready status by the FDA in 2018, only 18 months after being licensed from NTU by Agilis. Here, we highlight the factors that enabled this remarkable pace of successful drug development for an ultra-rare disease.