"I am very pleased to have received FDA acceptance of Revive’s second IND to support the clinical evaluation of Bucillamine as a potential new treatment for cystinuria," said Fabio Chianelli, President of Revive. "This marks another significant milestone for Revive and we look forward to initiating this Phase 2 study shortly."
Cystinuria is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder that causes high levels of cystine in the urine thus causing kidney stones to form. The resulting kidney stones are often large and recurrent and lead to significant morbidity and sometimes loss of kidney function.
There are approximately between 10,000 and 12,000 patients affected with cystinuria in the U.S. The worldwide prevalence is about 1 in 7,000.
Current drugs approved by the US FDA for the treatment of cystinuria include Cuprimine (D-penicillamine), which is a registered trademark of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. and Thiola (Tiopronin), which is marketed by Retrophin.
Both patent protection and the seven-year period of marketing exclusivity from the orphan drug designation for Cuprimine and Thiola have expired. Since the approval of Thiola in 1988, there have been no significant improvements in the treatment of cystinuria. Revive is repurposing Bucillamine as a potential new treatment in cystinuria.
Bucillamine is an oral small molecule drug prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis in Japan and South Korea for nearly 30 years. Bucillamine has a chemical structure similar to Thiola, but has two active thiol groups versus only one for Thiola.
The Company received US FDA orphan designation status for the use of Bucillamine for the treatment of cystinuria.