In a first for deuterated drugs, FDA (finally) OKs Teva’s would-be Huntington’s blockbuster Austedo
Ten months after the FDA put Teva’s would-be blockbuster deutetrabenazine on hold after raising some suspicions regarding certain metabolites found in patients, the FDA has given the drug an OK for Huntington’s chorea.
This is a first FDA approval in the world of deuterated drugs, which tweaks therapies so that they break down more slowly in patients. That way you can use a lower dose to greater effect. In this case the drug is a small molecule inhibitor of vesicular monoamine 2 transporter, or VMAT2, which is designed to regulate the levels of dopamine in the brain.
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