First Raxone approval outside Europe for disease causing blindness

Swiss drugmaker Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) has been given approval by the Ministry of Health Israel for Raxone (idebenone) as a treatmetn of visual impairment in adolescent and adult patients with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON).

This marks the first approval for Raxone in LHON, a genetic disease causing blindness, outside Europe. The drug will be made available in Israel through a collaboration with privately-owned Israeli pharma company Megapharm.

LHON presents predominantly in young, otherwise healthy adult males as rapid, painless loss of central vision, usually leading to permanent bilateral blindness within a few months of the onset of symptoms.