Zealand Pharma has received FDA approval for Zegalogue® (dasiglucagon) injection for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia in pediatric and adult patients with diabetes aged 6 years and above.
Severe hypoglycemia is an acute, life-threatening condition resulting from a critical drop in blood glucose levels associated primarily with insulin therapy and is one of the most feared complications of diabetes treatment. Children with diabetes on insulin are particularly affected, with 7 out 100 children up to the age of 18 reporting severe hypoglycemia in the previous 6 months. While patients have the ability to monitor and adjust their blood glucose levels to remain in proper glycemic control, it’s not always possible to prevent a severe hypoglycemic event.
“The U.S. FDA approval of Zegalogue is an exciting achievement for both patients and Zealand,” said Emmanuel Dulac, President and CEO of Zealand Pharma. “We would like to thank the trial participants, their families and caregivers, the investigators and their staff, and our employees who made the Zegalogue clinical studies and this resulting approval possible. We are committed to helping people with diabetes manage the potential consequences of their disease and look forward to making Zegalogue available in the U.S. in June. Field sales, market access and medical teams, along with comprehensive patient support services, are in place to maximize awareness to healthcare providers and preparedness to patients affected by severe hypoglycemia.”
The FDA approval was based on efficacy results from three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter Phase 3 studies of Zegalogue in children aged 6 to 17 and in adults with type 1 diabetes. The primary efficacy endpoint for all three studies was time to plasma glucose recovery (treatment success), defined as an increase in blood glucose of ?20 mg/dL from time of administration, without additional intervention within 45 minutes. The primary endpoint was successfully achieved across the adult and pediatric studies with a significantly faster median time to blood glucose recovery of only 10 minutes following Zegalogue administration compared to 30-45 minutes placebo. In the main Phase 3 adult trial 99% of patients recovered within 15 minutes.
In these studies, the most common adverse events reported (>2%) were nausea, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, and injection site pain in adults; and nausea, vomiting, headache, and injection site pain in pediatrics.
