Company: SRPT
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-029973
Chunk: 189

Company: Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 189
---
 six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established, in respect of the medicinal product concerned, that the criteria for orphan designation are no longer met, among other things, where it is shown on the basis of available evidence that the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity. The granted market exclusivity may also be ineffective against a similar medicinal product where the originator is unable to supply sufficient quantities of the medicinal product or a competitor drug, although similar, is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior than the initial orphan drug. The scope of the orphan drug exclusivity in Europe may be modified after grant of the market authorization of the orphan product (e.g., the approved therapeutic indication based on the benefit-risk assessment is narrower than or a subset of the designated orphan indication). Where the therapeutic indication being sought for approval does not fall within the scope of the designated orphan condition, a request should be sought for the designation decision to be amended. An amendment is possible only if the new condition differs slightly from that designated previously.

Thus, other companies may have received, or could receive, approval to market a product candidate that is granted orphan drug exclusivity for the same drug or similar drug and same orphan indication as any of our product candidates for which we plan to file an NDA, BLA or MAA. If that were to happen, our prior approved orphan products may face competition and any pending NDA, BLA or MAA for our product candidate for that indication may not be approved until the competing company’s period of exclusivity has expired in the U.S. or the EU, as applicable. For example, in September 2021, the FDA issued guidance concerning its position on interpreting when gene therapy products would be considered the “same” or “different” for purposes of orphan drug exclusivity. The guidance states that if two gene therapy products have or use different vectors, the FDA generally intends to consider them to be “different” drugs. Further, according to the guidance, the FDA generally intends to consider vectors from the same viral group (e.g., AAV2 vs. AAV5) to be different, when the differences between the vectors impact factors such as tropism, immune response avoidance, or potential insertional mutagenesis. However, there is considerable uncertainty as to the interpretation of these guidelines. As illustrated by this guidance, orphan drug exclusivity as applied to gene therapy products is an evolving area subject to change and interpretation by the FDA and therefore, we cannot be certain as to