FDA reviewing InterMune's IPF drug

BRISBANE, Calif. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a drug for treating a lung condition that affects around 200,000 people in the United States and Europe.

InterMune announced Friday that the FDA’s Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee would review the drug pirfenidone, a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. IPF is a disease that reduces lung function and eventually leads to disability and death.

The drug was approved in October 2008 in Japan, where Shionogi & Co. markets it under the name Pirespa, but there are currently no IPF drugs available in the United States or Europe. InterMune plans to market the drug here under the name Esbriet.