J&J's Invokana approved in Europe and Olysio cleared in USA

25 November 2013

It was a good news day for US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), with two of its Janssen subsidiaries gaining approval for important new drugs, one in Europe and the other in the USA, on Friday (November 22).

Belgium-based Janssen-Cilag International revealed that the European Commission has approved Invokana (canagliflozin) in the European Union for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus, to improve glycemic control.Canagliflozinis an oral, once-daily medication, which belongs to a new class of medications called sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors.

Canagliflozin was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2013, making it the first in its class to reach the market in the USA, and recently also in Australia. The approvals give Invokana an edge over rival SGLT2 drugs like AstraZeneca/Bristol-Myers Squibb's Forxiga (dapagliflozin), which has been approved in Europe (The Pharma Letter November 15, 2012) but is delayed in the USA, and Boehringer/Eli Lilly's empagliflozin, which has been filed for approval in the USA and Europe.

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