Eusa Pharma, a British drug development company with its North American headquarters in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its orphan drug Erwinaze for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who suffer from allergic reactions to chemotherapy drugs derived from E.Coli.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. Erwinaze, which is injected into the muscle, breaks down the amino acid, asparagine, one of the body’s protein building blocks present in the blood and necessary for the growth of cells. Leukemia cells cannot produce this protein building block and so they die. Normal human cells are able to make enough asparagine for their own needs through biosynthesis and would not be affected by treatment with Erwinaze.
The treatment has already been approved by European regulators as Erwinase.
BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem
Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.
Orphan drugs are classified as those treating niche patient populations of under 200,000. Eusa estimates that about 400-600 patients suffer allergic reactions from the treatment.
