Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. said on 19 March that the US Food and Drug Administration approved Ponvory (ponesimod) for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, including clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting disease and active secondary progressive disease. The approval brings to market a fourth sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) modulator for MS, but the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary thinks it can differentiate its drug against those and a raft of other approved therapies on the basis of selectivity, safety, convenience and rapid reversibility.
Acquired as part of J&J’s 2017 buyout of Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Ponvory is selective for the S1P receptor 1,...
