Masterstudiengang "Drug Regulatory Affairs"

Master-Thesis

Comparative evaluation of AAV gene therapy, antisense therapy and small molecules therapy for treatment of SMA for efficacy and safety ***

Dr. Jonas Kosten (Abschlußjahr: 2020)

Summary
Language: English
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disease caused by a dysfunctional SMN1 gene and is the leading cause of inherited infant death. SMA patients develop symmetric progressive muscle atrophy and weakness, eventually affecting all skeletal muscles. The most severe form of SMA, type 1, with an onset between 0-6 month of age, leads to a rapid motor neuron degeneration. This severely affects the respiratory system and usually results in a pneumonia-induced respiratory failure and death before the age of 2.
Three different drug types, small molecule (Risdiplam), antisense oligonucleotides (Spinraza™) and gene therapy (Zolgensma®) have been developed for the treatment of SMA, with Spinraza™ and Zolgensma® already approved. This thesis analyzes differences in pre-clinical and clinical development of the three treatments and compares their safety and efficacy profiles.
The pre-clinical development programs of Risdiplam and Spinraza™ are regulated under the same guidelines, which is visible in the type of pre-clinical studies conducted. In contrast, the pre-clinical development of gene therapy requires a much more flexible approach leading to a pre-clinical program for Zolgensma® that is significantly different from the other two treatment developments.
In the clinics, Risdiplam and Spinraza™ showed similarly favorable clinical safety profiles with few treatment-related adverse events, while Zolgensma® showed clear treatment-related adverse events including serious adverse reactions. The published primary and secondary endpoint data allowed an efficacy comparison of Risdiplam, Spinraza™ and Zolgensma® for SMA type 1 and SMA type 2 or 3. Overall, most efficacy endpoints favored Zolgensma®, followed by Risdiplam and Spinraza™ for treatment of type 1 SMA patients, and Zolgensma®, followed by Spinraza™ and Risdiplam for type 2 and 3 SMA patients. Consequentially, the benefit-risk ratio is likely in favor for Risdiplam for treatment of type 1 SMA patients and similar for Zolgensma® and Spinraza™ for treatment of type 2 or 3 SMA patients.
Pages: 58
Annexes: 1, Pages: 12