European drug regulators granted orphan drug status to Chelsea Therapeutics' remedy for hypotension, Droxidopa, and recommended the same for Progen's experimental liver drug, known as PI-88. Designed to promote drugs that treat deadly and rare diseases, the E.U.'s orphan drug program offers marketing exclusivity for up to 10 years.
Chelsea's Droxidopa drug treats a particular sort of low blood pressure stemming from Parkinson's or from multiple-system atrophy. Its European orphan status covers both disorders and lasts for 10 years. It already has orphan-drug status in the U.S.
PI-88 treats primary liver cancer; its orphan designation won't be official until the European Commission officially adopts it, probably by the end of the third quarter.
- see the release
- read the report from the Charlotte Business Journal