WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTPH) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the company’s lead antibiotic product candidate, eravacycline, as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP). The QIDP designation, granted for complicated intra-abdominal infection (cIAI) and complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI) indications, will make eravacycline eligible to benefit from certain incentives for the development of new antibiotics provided under the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now Act (GAIN Act). These incentives include priority review and eligibility for fast-track status. Further, if ultimately approved by the FDA, eravacycline is eligible for an additional five-year extension of Hatch-Waxman exclusivity.
Eravacycline is being developed as a broad-spectrum IV and oral antibiotic for use as a first-line empiric monotherapy for the treatment of multi-drug resistant infections, including multi-drug resistant Gram-negative infections. Tetraphase is planning to advance eravacycline into Phase 3 clinical studies in cIAI and cUTI in the second half of this year.
“We are delighted that our lead antibiotic product candidate, eravacycline, has received QIDP designation under the GAIN Act for both cIAI and cUTI indications. We believe it is the first product candidate to receive this designation in cIAI,” said Guy Macdonald, Tetraphase President and Chief Executive Officer. “Antibiotic resistance, particularly among the difficult-to-treat populations with Gram-negative infections, represents a potential global health crisis.”
About The GAIN Act
The GAIN Act, Title VIII (Sections 801 through 806) of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, seeks to provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with incentives to encourage the development of new drugs to treat, prevent, detect and diagnose antibiotic-resistant infections. Qualifying pathogens are defined by the GAIN Act to include multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, and Escherichia coli species; resistant Gram-positive pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus; multi-drug resistant tuberculosis; and Clostridium difficile. It extends the length of time an approved drug is free from competition and clarifies the regulatory pathway for new antibiotics.
About Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Tetraphase is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary chemistry technology to create novel antibiotics for serious and life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections. Tetraphase’s lead product candidate, eravacycline, is a fully synthetic tetracycline derivative being developed as a broad-spectrum intravenous and oral antibiotic for use as a first-line empiric monotherapy for the treatment of multi-drug resistant infections, including multi-drug resistant Gram-negative infections.
Any statements in this press release about our future expectations, plans and prospects, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives, and other statements containing the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: whether eravacycline will benefit from the QIDP designation; whether eravacycline will advance through the clinical trial process on a timely basis; whether the results of the clinical trials of eravacycline will warrant the submission of applications for marketing approval, and if so, whether eravacycline will receive approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration or equivalent foreign regulatory agencies where approval is sought; whether, if eravacycline obtains approval, it will be successfully distributed and marketed; and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views as of July 1, 2013. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so.
