MPD FOUNDATION INITIATES RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FDA

It is clear in the research community that there’s a great deal of excellent work happening in the direction of new therapies for MPD patients. This is not only occurring with the researchers funded in the MPD Research Alliance, but also in other academic labs and drug companies.

With this in mind, and in anticipation of new candidate drugs for MPD patients, we recently initiated an effort to create a relationship with the FDA. Our purpose is to learn how we can most effectively collaborate as patient advocates to accelerate the drug approval process if and when new drugs are available for clinical trials. Recently, we met with several leaders of the FDA who are responsible for oncology drug approvals which include hematological drugs. These are the same people who helped accelerate the approval process for Gleevec several years ago.

We are pleased to report that our meeting at FDA headquarters outside Washington, DC was well received. We made a presentation on the state of MPD research and the prospects for new drug development. The scientists from the FDA were highly receptive to our comments and assured us that the clinical pathway to approvals for an effective kinase inhibitor would not be complicated.

We were delighted to have established such a good working rapport in our first meeting. We will continue to do what we can to facilitate the development of new drugs for the MPD community and will update you on our progress.