Capricor Therapeutics announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation to CAP-1002, Capricor's development candidate for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a debilitating genetic disorder characterized by progressive weakness and chronic inflammation of skeletal, heart, and respiratory muscles. The Rare Pediatric Disease Designation, as well as the Orphan Drug Designation previously granted to CAP-1002 by the FDA, covers the broad treatment of DMD. Upon receiving market approval for CAP-1002 by the FDA, Capricor would be eligible to receive a Priority Review Voucher.
"The Rare Pediatric Disease Designation adds to our previous Orphan Drug Designation for CAP-1002 for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which together underscore the urgent need for treatment options for this devastating rare disease as well as provide Capricor with certain incentives for their development," said Linda Marbán, Ph.D., Capricor's president and chief executive officer. "We believe CAP-1002 has the potential to provide meaningful clinical benefit to patients. We look forward to commencing our next clinical trial in DMD, for which design will be relevant to the overall registration plan for this candidate."
In April 2017, Capricor announced positive results from its Phase I/II HOPE clinical trial of CAP-1002 in DMD patients with advanced disease. The company recently met with the FDA to discuss potential product registration strategies for this indication, and Capricor plans to commence a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of intravenous, repeat-dose CAP-1002 in boys and young men with Duchenne in the second half of this year, subject to regulatory approval.
Capricor expects to report 12-month results from the HOPE Trial in the fourth quarter of 2017. The HOPE Trial is funded in part by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
The FDA defines a "rare pediatric disease" as a serious or life-threatening disease affecting individuals primarily aged from birth to 18 years and that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the U.S. Under the FDA's Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher program, upon the approval of a qualifying new drug application (NDA) or biologics license application (BLA) for the treatment of a rare pediatric disease, the sponsor of such application would be eligible for a Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher that can be used to obtain priority review for a subsequent NDA or BLA. The Priority Review Voucher may be sold or transferred an unlimited number of times.
CAP-1002 consists of allogeneic cardiosphere-derived cells, or CDCs, a type of progenitor cell that has been shown to exert potent immuno-modulatory activity. CDCs have been the subject of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and have been administered to approximately 140 human subjects across several clinical trials.
DMD is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. It is caused by an abnormality in the dystrophin complex, a structural element that plays a critical role in muscle fiber integrity, which leads to chronic muscle damage. Patients with DMD typically die in their twenties, most commonly due to heart disease. The incidence of DMD is estimated to be one in every 3,600 live male births, and DMD is believed to afflict approximately 15,000 to 20,000 boys and young men in the United States.