FDA Extends Review Period for Baricitinib, an Investigational Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

Eli Lilly and Company and Incyte Corporation announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the review period for the new drug application (NDA) for investigational baricitinib, a once-daily oral medication for the treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The NDA for baricitinib was submitted to the FDA in January 2016.

The FDA extended the action date to allow time to review additional data analyses recently submitted by Lilly in response to the FDA's Information Requests. The submission of the additional information has been determined by the FDA to constitute a Major Amendment to the NDA, resulting in an extension of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date by three months.

"At Lilly, we are committed to improving the lives of people with life-long chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, a serious and disabling type of arthritis," said J. Anthony Ware, M.D., senior vice president, product development and interim president of Lilly Bio-Medicines. "We will continue to work closely with the FDA throughout the review process and we believe that baricitinib has the potential to be an effective treatment choice, especially for those patients for whom current therapies are not adequately addressing their disease."

This delay does not affect Lilly's previously-issued financial guidance for 2017.