A drug developed by a Northwestern professor could hit Europeanmarkets within a year and be available in the United States withintwo years, officials said Thursday.
Once on the market, the drug, pregabalin, could bring NUhundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to industryexperts.
In 1989, chemistry Prof. Richard Silverman developed pregabalin,which could be used to treat anxiety, epilepsy and pain disorders.Pfizer, Inc., the world’s largest drug company, decided in May todevelop the drug for commercial use.
In a Tuesday investor’s report, Pfizer announced the companyfiled for pregabalin’s approval with the European Agency for theEvaluation of Medicinal Products, Europe’s equivalent of the Foodand Drug Administration. Indrani Mukharji, NU’s executive directorfor the technology transfer program, said it will take about a yearto gain approval, after which the drug will be launched in theEuropean market.
Last May, University President Henry Bienen said NU wouldreceive as much as 6 percent of pregabalin’s revenue.
That means of the $4 billion to $6 billion experts estimate thedrug would earn annually, NU would receive between $240 million and$360 million.
Although Silverman developed the drug, NU’s Technology TransferOffice has taken over managing the project.
Mukharji said she thinks Pfizer will file for FDA approval laterthis year. Pfizer is waiting to file in the United States becauseit must be proven that the drug is safe, she said.
The drug could bring more than money to NU, said Alan Cubbage,vice president for university relations, last May when Pfizer firstannounced it would develop the drug.
“Any time that there is a scientific advance that is at leastpotentially helpful to the world at large and the health ofmillions of people — that obviously is a benefit to theuniversity, not just financially but in terms of its reputation,”Cubbage said.
Experts expect pregabalin to have a big effect: According toPfizer, the drug will change the way patients with neurological andanxiety disorders are treated because the drug has fewer sideeffects than current treatments.
After securing approval to treat these disorders, Pfizer hopesto get pregabalin approved to treat social anxiety, panicdisorders, fibromyalgia — a disease characterized by intensemuscle pain — and single-drug treatments for epilepsy.
