Mit­subishi Tan­abe wins the race to snag the first new ALS drug OK in more than 20 years

Af­ter be­ing re­cruit­ed by the FDA, Mit­subishi Tan­abe has won the agency’s ap­proval to start sell­ing edar­avone as a new treat­ment for ALS — the first new drug for this lethal dis­ease in more than two decades and on­ly the sec­ond now avail­able to pa­tients.

Reg­u­la­tors asked the Japan­ese phar­ma com­pa­ny to file the drug for ALS af­ter its ap­proval in Ko­rea and Japan. The drug — which has al­so been sold for acute is­chemic stroke for years in Japan — will now hit the mar­ket as Rad­i­ca­va.

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