U.S. FDA Approves VYNDAQEL® and VYNDAMAX™ for Use in Patients with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy, a Rare and Fatal Disease
Pfizer Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved both VYNDAQEL® (tafamidis meglumine) and VYNDAMAX™ (tafamidis) for the treatment of the cardiomyopathy of wild-type or hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR-CM) in adults to reduce cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular-related hospitalization. VYNDAQEL and VYNDAMAX are two oral formulations of the first-in-class transthyretin stabilizer tafamidis, and the first and only medicines approved by the FDA to treat ATTR-CM.
Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy is a rare, life-threatening disease characterized by the buildup of abnormal deposits of misfolded protein called amyloid in the heart and is defined by restrictive cardiomyopathy and progressive heart failure. Previously, there were no medicines approved to treat ATTR-CM; the only available options included symptom management, and, in rare cases, heart (or heart and liver) transplant. It is estimated that the prevalence of ATTR-CM is approximately 100,000 people in the U.S. and only one to two percent of those patients are diagnosed today.