Patient dies after taking Pfizer drug for hemophilia
Kyiv • UNN
A patient died on December 14 after taking Pfizer's Hympavzi, which caused serious side effects, including a stroke. Pfizer is gathering information, not expecting an impact on patient safety.
A patient died after taking Pfizer Inc.'s hemophilia drug, dealing another blow to the company in the blood disorder treatment field, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
Details
The death occurred on December 14 after the patient experienced "serious adverse events," including stroke and intracranial hemorrhage, according to a statement from the European Hemophilia Consortium, a patient group. The patient was participating in an open-label extension study of Hympavzi, approved for the treatment of a condition that prevents proper blood clotting and can lead to life-threatening bleeding in muscles, joints, and organs.
Last year, US and European regulators approved Hympavzi to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in some hemophilia patients. While other treatments exist, Pfizer's drug was positioned as the first of its kind.
In its statement, Pfizer said it was gathering additional information to better understand the circumstances of the patient's death. The company stated that it does not anticipate any impact on the safety of patients receiving this drug, citing "current knowledge and overall clinical data collected to date."
Addendum
According to the publication, Pfizer has faced safety issues with its blood clotting disorder drugs. Last year, the company withdrew its sickle cell anemia drug from the market, citing an "imbalance" in the number of deaths and sickle cell anemia complications in patients.
Meanwhile, gene therapy for hemophilia has not achieved commercial success. Earlier this year, Pfizer announced it was discontinuing development of gene therapy for this blood disorder 12 months after receiving US approval. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is struggling to sell its hemophilia gene therapy after seeing weak patient interest.