Pfizer Emblaveo gets European Commission marketing nod for patients with multidrug-resistant infections and limited treatment options

“For healthcare teams treating patients with serious Gram-negative bacterial infections, the prospect of running out of effective treatment options is a daunting but very real threat,” said Yehuda Carmeli, Head, National Institute for Antibiotic Resistance and Infection Control, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel, and an investigator in the REVISIT study. “The approval of EMBLAVEO is welcome news for the infectious disease community and provides new hope to critically ill patients affected by antimicrobial resistance.”

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change and find ways to resist the effects of antimicrobial drugs – is recognized as one of the biggest threats to global health. If AMR continues to rise unchecked, minor infections could become life-threatening, and many routine medical procedures such as caesarean sections and hip replacements could become too risky to perform. Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria are of particular concern due to the high rates of morbidity and mortality they cause. Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) are a type of enzyme produced by certain bacteria that can result in resistance to antibiotics, and MBL-producing Gram-negative bacteria are on the rise globally. Developing new treatments for infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria has been prioritized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a critical area of focus due to their increasing spread.

“The European Medicines Agency’s accelerated review of EMBLAVEO reflects the urgent need for new treatments to address the threat of antimicrobial resistance,” said Alexandre de Germay, Chief International Commercial Officer, Executive Vice President, Pfizer. “With this approval, Pfizer is proud to take another step forward in its commitment to developing and bringing breakthrough health solutions to patients impacted by serious infectious diseases around the world.”

This approval is based on results from the previously reported Phase 3 program comprising the REVISIT (NCT03329092) and ASSEMBLE (NCT03580044) studies evaluating the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of EMBLAVEO in treating serious bacterial infections due to Gram-negative bacteria, including MBL-producing multidrug-resistant pathogens for which there are limited or no treatment options. Data support that EMBLAVEO is effective and well-tolerated, with no new safety findings and a similar safety profile to aztreonam alone.

The marketing authorization of EMBLAVEO is valid in all 27 European Union (EU) member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Marketing authorization applications for EMBLAVEO are planned for submission in other countries.

EMBLAVEO combines aztreonam, a monobactam β-lactam, with avibactam, a recent broad-spectrum β-lactamase inhibitor. MBLs are a class of β-lactamase enzymes that are not inhibited by current β-lactamase inhibitors and hydrolyze nearly all β-lactam antibiotics, with an exception being monobactams such as aztreonam. However, monobactams are degraded by other β-lactamases that are frequently co-produced with MBLs, limiting the clinical usefulness of aztreonam monotherapy.

The combination of aztreonam with avibactam restores aztreonam’s activity against bacteria that co-produce MBLs and other β-lactamases and provides a well-tolerated and effective treatment option against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. These multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria include MBL-producing Enterobacterales, which have been highlighted as a critical priority pathogen by the WHO, and S. maltophilia. EMBLAVEO is the β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combination for treating serious bacterial infections in adult patients caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, including MBL-producing bacteria, approved for use in the EU.

EMBLAVEO was jointly developed with AbbVie. Pfizer holds the global rights to commercialize this therapy outside of the U.S. and Canada, where the rights are held by AbbVie. Development of EMBLAVEO was also supported by public-private partnerships between Pfizer and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) under OTA number HHSO100201500029C; and through the EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiative(IMI) – a partnership between the EU and the European pharmaceutical industry – under a project called COMBACTE-CARE (Combatting Bacterial Resistance in Europe – Carbapenem Resistance). The COMBACTE-CARE consortium is a unique public-private collaboration that unites the knowledge and capabilities of leading drug-resistant bacterial infection experts and is supported by the COMBACTE pan-European clinical and laboratory networks.