For the first time, paediatric patients aged 5-11 years with HoFH in the EU have access to a first-in-class medicine, Evkeeza (evinacumab), to treat an ultrarare, inherited form of high cholesterol
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. announced that the European Commission (EC) has extended the approval of Evkeeza (evinacumab) as an adjunct to diet and other lipid-lowering therapies to treat children aged 5 to 11 years with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH)
Evkeeza is the first angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3) inhibitor treatment indicated for children as young as 5 years old to control dangerously high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) caused by HoFH. Evkeeza initially received EC decision as an adjunct to diet and other lipid-lowering therapies in adolescents and adults aged 12 years and older with HoFH in June 2021.
“This approval heralds a new era for treatment of children 5 to 11 years of age with HoFH,” stated Albert Wiegman, M.D., Ph.D. and Professor, Department of Paediatrics at Amsterdam University Medical Center. “The addition of Evkeeza to aggressive baseline lipid-lowering therapy nearly halves LDL-C levels in a disorder with an extremely high risk of premature cardiovascular disease in young patients, where achieving LDL-C goals otherwise isn’t possible".
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