Alkermes plc today announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of aripiprazole lauroxil, the company’s investigational, novel, once-monthly, long-acting injectable atypical antipsychotic for the treatment of schizophrenia. The data submitted as part of this NDA include the positive results from the pivotal phase 3 study assessing the efficacy and safety of aripiprazole lauroxil, in which aripiprazole lauroxil demonstrated significant improvements in schizophrenia symptoms, compared to placebo.

“We have designed aripiprazole lauroxil to be a differentiated treatment option for schizophrenia, with a ready-to-use format with multiple dosing options, to help meet the individual needs of patients and their healthcare providers,” stated Richard Pops, Chief Executive Officer of Alkermes. “These attributes, together with the robust clinical data observed in the pivotal study, position aripiprazole lauroxil to be a meaningful new entrant in the growing long-acting injectable antipsychotic market, and we look forward to working with the FDA to bring this important new medication to patients and physicians as quickly as possible.”

The NDA submission follows the completion of the randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study, in which both doses of aripiprazole lauroxil tested, 441 mg and 882 mg administered once monthly, met the primary endpoint with statistically significant and clinically meaningful reductions in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores, met all secondary endpoints and demonstrated significant improvements in schizophrenia symptoms versus placebo. Aripiprazole lauroxil was generally well tolerated in the study, and the observed safety profile of aripiprazole lauroxil was similar to that reported with oral aripiprazole. The most common adverse events in the study were insomnia, akathisia and headache.

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