ChemoCentryx’s ‘Avacopan’ Drug Gets US FDA Approval to Treat Rare Autoimmune Disease

On Friday, 8^th October 2021, the company ChemoCentryx Inc., said, the health agency of the United States has given the authorization to the company’s lead drug for the treatment of a rare and fatal autoimmune disease, that has been sending the shares of the biopharmaceutical company up by more than 70 percent.

Thomas Schall, chief executive of ChemoCentryx said, the drug of the company, which is known as ‘avacopan’, that is going to be available under the ‘Tavneos’ brand name in the upcoming few weeks, is going to have a wholesale price ranging from 150,000 dollars to 200,000 dollars per patient every year.

The drug avacopan has been administered orally for the treatment of the antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA), which has been a group of conditions that has been characterized by the destruction along with the inflammation of the small blood vessels along with affecting the different organs, especially the kidneys.

The drug mainly works by stopping the activity of a protein called as the C5a receptor, that has been responsible for causing the numerous inflammatory diseases, and existing and current treatments includes the immunosuppressants like the Biogen Inc., along with the partner Rituxan, a cancer drug of Roche Holding AG, that has been combined with the daily administration of the steroids, that can possibly cause some serious side effects.

In the United States, the disease has affected around 40,000 people, along with a daily increase of around 4,000 new cases every year.