New Drug Application Submitted to PMDA in Japan for Somatrogon, to Treat Pediatric Patients with Growth Hormone Deficiency

MIAMI, Jan. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) announced today that its partner, Pfizer Japan Inc., submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan for somatrogon, a long-acting recombinant human growth hormone that is intended to be administered once-weekly for the treatment of pediatric patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD).

This submission is based on the results of the Japan Phase 3 and global Phase 3 clinical studies, conducted in subjects with pediatric GHD, in which the efficacy and safety of somatrogon administered once weekly were compared with GENOTROPIN (somatropin), a recombinant human growth hormone for injection, administered once daily. In both studies, somatrogon showed comparable efficacy to GENOTROPIN for the primary endpoint of annual height velocity at 12 months of treatment. Somatrogon was generally well tolerated in both studies, with comparable safety to that of GENOTROPIN administered once-daily with respect to the types, numbers and severity of the adverse events observed between the treatment arms.

In 2014, Pfizer Inc. and OPKO Health, Inc. entered into a worldwide agreement for the development and commercialization of somatrogon. Under the agreement, OPKO is responsible for conducting the clinical program, and Pfizer is responsible for registering and commercializing the product.

About the Japan Phase 3 Study
The Phase 3 study of somatrogon in 44 treatment-naïve Japanese pre-pubertal children with pediatric GHD was a 12-month, open-label, randomized, active-controlled, parallel-group study of the efficacy and safety of weekly somatrogon compared to recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH), GENOTROPIN (somatropin) for injection treatment administered once-daily. Eligible patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either once-weekly somatrogon or GENOTROPIN administered once-daily (reference therapy, 0.025 mg/kg/day which is equivalent to 0.175 mg/kg/week). To obtain pharmacokinetic information of three different weekly doses in Japanese pediatric GHD patients, somatrogon treated patients received 0.25 mg/kg/week for 2 weeks, followed by 0.48 mg/kg/week for 2 weeks followed by 0.66 mg/kg/week for the remaining 46 weeks. Somatrogon was administered subcutaneously using a single patient use, multi-dose, disposable, pre-filled pen, the same pen used in the global study, while GENOTROPIN was administered using approved commercial products in Japan.