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Exjade
deferasirox
This is a summary of the European public assessment report (EPAR) for Exjade. It explains how the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) assessed the medicine to reach its opinion in favour of granting a marketing authorisation and its recommendations on the conditions of use for Exjade.
What is Exjade?
Exjade is a medicine that contains the active substance deferasirox. It is available as dispersible tablets that are mixed with a liquid to make up a suspension that the patient can drink. Each tablet contains 125 mg, 250 mg or 500 mg of deferasirox.
7 Westferry Circus Canary Wharf London E14 4HB United Kingdom Telephone +44 (0)20 7418 8400 Facsimile +44 (0)20 7418 8416 E-mail info@ema.europa.eu Website www.ema.europa.eu
European Medicines Agency, 2013. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
patients from 10 years of age with non-transfusion-dependent thalassaemia syndromes, when deferoxamine cannot be used or is inadequate. Non-transfusion-dependent thalassaemia syndromes are blood disorders similar to beta thalassaemia major but which do not require blood transfusions. In these patients iron overload is caused by excess absorption of iron from the gut.
Because the number of patients with chronic iron overload is low, the disease is considered rare, and Exjade was designated an orphan medicine (a medicine used in rare diseases) on 13 March 2002. The medicine can only be obtained with a prescription.
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Exjade was also investigated in one main study involving 166 patients (including 21 patients aged from 10 to 18 years) from 10 years of age with non-transfusion-dependent thalassaemia syndromes and iron overload. In this study, Exjade was compared with placebo (a dummy treatment) and the main measure of effectiveness was the change in iron levels in the liver after 12 months of treatment.
What measures are being taken to ensure the safe use of Exjade?
The company that makes Exjade must prepare an education pack for doctors, which is distributed whenever the medicine is launched. This pack will ensure that doctors know about the need to monitor the patients health, especially kidney function, when they prescribe the medicine. The company will also prepare a similar pack for patients. The company will also provide information to doctors who use the medicine to treat patients with nontransfusion-dependent thalassaemia syndromes, to ensure that they know about the risks and treatment recommendations for this group of patients.
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The company will perform a study in children aged 10 years and above with non-transfusiondependent thalassaemia to obtain more information on the long-term effects of treatment in these patients.
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