Company: SION
Filing Date: 2025-11-05
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001628280-25-049251
Chunk: 379

Company: Sionna Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-11-05
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part II, Item 8
Chunk 379
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 orphan drugs. For example, under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product candidate as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition. In order for the FDA to grant orphan drug exclusivity to one of our product candidates, the agency must find that the product candidate is indicated for the treatment of a condition or disease that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the U.S. or that affects 200,000 or more individuals in the U.S. and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making the product candidate available for the disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product in the U.S. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. The FDA may conclude that the condition or disease for which we seek orphan drug exclusivity does not meet the required standard.

If a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for a particular drug for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan product exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances such as if the FDA finds that the holder of the orphan drug exclusivity has not shown that it can assure the availability of sufficient quantities of the orphan drug to meet the needs of patients with the disease or condition for which the drug was designated.

In addition, even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve another product candidate for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later product candidate is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care compared with the product that has orphan exclusivity. In the U.S., orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages, and user-fee waivers. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the drug or biologic and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process.

A similar regulatory scheme governs approval of orphan product candidates by the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) in the European Union. The orphan product marketing exclusivity period in the European Union is ten years, which can be reduced to six years if at the end of the fifth year it is determined that a product no 

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longer meets the criteria