Basilea Teams up with Astellas to promote new antifungal

Submitted by Aspergillus Administrator on 22 March 2010

The new antifungal drug isavuconazole (made by Basilea) which is in the later stages of its testing and regulatory approval has received a significant boost  by being the subject of  a major new partnership in the drug manufacturing world.
Basilea has sold worldwide rights for the sale of isavuconazole to Astellas and this means that Astellas can take over further development and commercialisation as well as manufacturing – Astellas have a lot of experiance in the antifungal field as they already market 2 other products. This will hopefully give the prospective launch of isavuconazole new impetus and will allow Basilea to concentrate on other drugs it is developing.

Isavuconazole is in current clinical trials for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis, so assuming results are favourable may come to market in the fairly near future.

An independent data safety monitoring board recommended the continuation of the phase III clinical trial of isavuconazole for the treatment of invasive Aspergillus infections based on a futility analysis.This type of analysis is designed to detect any significant safety issues in the trial which might make it necessary to terminate the trial.

Earlier studies have suggested that it has fewer side effects compared with existing comparable antifungal drugs (e.g. voriconazole, itraconazole), so the outcome of the current clinical trials is eagerly anticipated.