Increase in specialty drugs leads to more FDA approvals in 2008

NEW YORK Specialty medicines contributed to a large increase in drug approvals by the Food and Drug Administration in 2008, according to analysis by Bloomberg.

The news agency noted that the FDA approved 25 new drugs, compared to 19 in 2007, many of them treatments for rare diseases.

Some of the drugs included Amgen’s Nplate (romiplostim), a treatment for the bleeding disorder idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, GlaxoSmithKline’s and Ligand Pharmaceuticals’ Promacta (eltrombopag), also for ITP. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals released Arcalyst (rilonacept), a treatment for rare inflammatory diseases called cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes.