The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has granted breakthrough therapy designation to Boehringer Ingelheim for a treatment in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a devastating and fatal lung disease. Nintedanib is an investigational therapy currently under FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA review) for IPF.

“We’re excited nintedanib has been granted breakthrough therapy designation in the US, which we hope will make the treatment available to IPF patients as quickly as possible. Currently there are no FDA-approved treatments available for IPF. We are committed to working with all regulatory bodies to make nintedanib available to people living with this serious and life-threatening lung disease.” said Professor Klaus Dugi, chief medical officer, Boehringer Ingelheim.

The breakthrough therapy designation process was established by the FDA in 2012. It is intended to facilitate and expedite the development and review of treatments for serious or life-threatening conditions if preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the therapy may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints.

IPF is a debilitating and fatal lung disease that causes permanent scarring of the lungs, difficulty breathing and decreases the amount of oxygen the lungs can supply to the major organs of the body. IPF affects as many as 14-43 people per 100,000 worldwide.

Nintedanib is the first targeted treatment for IPF that has consistently demonstrated to slow disease progression in IPF by significantly reducing the annual decline in lung function by approximately 50%.

This effect on disease progression was further supported in the pooled data set by a positive signal in reducing the risk of acute exacerbations by 38% (p=0.08) and a significant risk reduction in confirmed or suspected acute exacerbation by 68% (p=0.005).
 
Nintedanib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in development by Boehringer Ingelheim for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).  It targets growth factor receptors, which have been shown to be potentially involved in pathomechanisms of pulmonary fibrosis, most importantly the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR).  By blocking the signaling pathways that are involved in fibrotic processes, it is believed that nintedanib has the potential to reduce disease progression in IPF by slowing the decline of lung function. Nintedanib is also in clinical development as a treatment option for cancer, including non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, Boehringer Ingelheim operates globally with 142 affiliates and a total of more than 47,400 employees. The focus of the family-owned company, founded in 1885, is researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing new medications of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.