AveXis today announced alignment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the company’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) commercial manufacturing process for AVXS-101 following the receipt of minutes from the Type B Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) meeting.
This alignment includes support for the proposed commercial manufacturing process, the proposed analytical methods and corresponding qualification and validation plans – inclusive of key release assays such as potency, purity and identity – and the proposed comparability protocol, which helps assess how similar the product derived from the GMP process is to the original product used in the Phase 1 trial of AVXS-101 in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 1.
Overall, the company believes there is alignment with the FDA on its panel of analytical methods and the proposed assay qualification/validation plans. Analytical methods are used to assess how reliably and consistently the key product characteristics can be determined in order to ensure patients receive safe and effective product.
In the meeting minutes, the FDA made a request that the company complete implementation of its potency assay qualification plan, presented in the meeting, prior to initiation of upcoming clinical studies.
The company has already initiated the work necessary to address this request and expects to have the data ready to submit to the FDA in the August timeframe. AveXis plans to initiate a pivotal study trial of AVXS-101 in SMA Type 1 in the U.S. and a Phase 1/2a trial of AVXS-101 in SMA Type 2 in the U.S. later in the third quarter of 2017, pending agreement from the FDA that these data are sufficient.
“The goal of the CMC meeting was to align with FDA on our commercial manufacturing process, analytical methods and comparability protocol, all three of which we believe were achieved in this collaborative and constructive discussion,” said Sean Nolan, President and Chief Executive Officer of AveXis. “The team has already made progress toward addressing the FDA’s request regarding potency assay qualification, and we anticipate only a modest impact to timelines. We are pleased with the outcomes of the meeting and the progress we have made at the AveXis facility, and, most importantly, believe we have a scalable GMP commercial process in place to fulfill future patient demand and a path forward to potentially utilize the Phase 1 data in our regulatory pathway.”
Additionally, FDA is aligned with the company’s proposed comparability protocol to assess the similarity of key characteristics of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) product, used in the Phase 1 SMA Type 1 study, with the product derived from the new GMP manufacturing process. Data from this comparability work is ongoing and will include the above-mentioned potency qualification data, which will be incorporated into the data package along with the full Phase 1 clinical data, that will be reviewed and discussed at the upcoming end-of-Phase 1 meeting, likely to be requested later in August. This meeting will help further inform the regulatory pathway options for AVXS-101. The company anticipates providing an update on the outcome of that meeting once the official minutes are available, which is anticipated to be in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The company has previously stated that having its own manufacturing facility is a key strategic capability necessary to be successful in gene therapy. The company today reported that the AveXis manufacturing facility is now fully operational for on-going GMP production.
Product for the planned SMA Type 1 pivotal trials and the Type 2 Phase 1/2a trial using intrathecal delivery has been produced at the AveXis-owned facility, and will be used to initiate the trials, pending FDA review of the potency assay qualification described above and FDA agreement that designated batches of the product are appropriate for a Phase 3 clinical study.
The AveXis facility will be the primary production site to meet projected commercial demand, and the company will use contract manufacturing organizations to supplement production.
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