Fennec Pharmaceuticals Announces European Commission Marketing Authorization for Pedmarqsi (sodium thiosulfate) to Reduce the Risk of Hearing Loss in Pediatric Oncology Patients - Seite 2

The incidence of ototoxicity depends upon the dose and duration of chemotherapy, and many of these children require lifelong hearing aids or cochlear implants, which can be helpful for some, but do not reverse the hearing loss and can be costly over time.³ Infants and young children that are affected by ototoxicity at critical stages of development lack speech and language development and literacy, and older children and adolescents often lack social-emotional development and educational achievement.⁴

PEDMARK (sodium thiosulfate)
PEDMARK is the first and only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved therapy indicated to reduce the risk of ototoxicity associated with cisplatin treatment in pediatric patients with localized, non-metastatic, solid tumors. It is a unique formulation of sodium thiosulfate in single-dose, ready-to-use vials for intravenous use in pediatric patients. PEDMARK is also the only therapeutic agent with proven efficacy and safety data with an established dosing paradigm, across two open-label, randomized Phase 3 clinical studies, the Clinical Oncology Group (COG) Protocol ACCL0431 and SIOPEL 6.

In the U.S. and Europe, it is estimated that, annually, more than 10,000 children may receive platinum-based chemotherapy. The incidence of ototoxicity depends upon the dose and duration of chemotherapy, and many of these children require lifelong hearing aids. There is currently no established preventive agent for this hearing loss and only expensive, technically difficult, and sub-optimal cochlear (inner ear) implants have been shown to provide some benefit. Infants and young children that suffer ototoxicity at critical stages of development lack speech language development and literacy, and older children and adolescents lack social-emotional development and educational achievement.

PEDMARK has been studied by co-operative groups in two Phase 3 clinical studies of survival and reduction of ototoxicity, COG ACCL0431 and SIOPEL 6. Both studies have been completed. The COG ACCL0431 protocol enrolled childhood cancers typically treated with intensive cisplatin therapy for localized and disseminated disease, including newly diagnosed hepatoblastoma, germ cell tumor, osteosarcoma, neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, and other solid tumors. SIOPEL 6 enrolled only hepatoblastoma patients with localized tumors.