Acorda Therapeutics, Inc announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Fampridine-SR New Drug Application (NDA) for filing, assigning Priority Review and a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date of October 22, 2009. The PDUFA date is the target date for the FDA to complete its review of the Fampridine-SR NDA.

"I am pleased that we were able to work quickly to address the comments from the FDA and resubmit our NDA approximately three weeks from having received the Refuse to File letter on our initial NDA submission, and that the FDA accepted the filing less than two weeks later," said Ron Cohen, Acorda Therapeutics' president and CEO. "We are also encouraged that the FDA has elected to assign Priority Review status to the Fampridine-SR NDA."

Fampridine-SR is a sustained-release tablet formulation of the investigational drug fampridine (4-aminopyridine or 4-AP). In laboratory studies, fampridine has been found to improve impulse conduction in nerve fibres in which the insulating layer, called myelin, has been damaged.

Acorda Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing therapies for spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and related nervous system disorders.

Elan Drug Technologies (EDT) is the world's leading drug delivery company and is a business unit of Elan.