Actelion reports positive pulmonary arterial hypertension drug data

Actelion has announced the publication of new clinical data from a study of a new therapy it has developed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results demonstrate the benefits of the oral, selective IP prostacyclin receptor agonist selexipag in patients with PAH over an extended period.

Data from the multicentre phase III GRIPHON study, which involved 1,156 patients, showed the therapy delivered a risk reduction in the primary composite endpoint of death from any cause or complications related to PAH up to the end of the treatment period by 40 percent compared to placebo.

This marks the first time that an oral therapy targeting the prostacyclin pathway has demonstrated long-term effectiveness.

Dr Jean-Paul Clozel, chief executive officer of Actelion, said: "Together with our partners at Nippon Shinyaku, we hope to see the very significant benefit of treatment with selexipag made available to the PAH community very soon."

Selexipag was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of PAH and is under review by other regulatory authorities around the world.