InterMune (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ITMN]]), the Brisbane, CA-based drug developer, said today that pirfenidone (Esbriet) has been cleared by regulators for sale in the 27 countries that make up the European Union. The drug will be marketed to treat mild to moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. InterMune says it plans to start commercializing the drug in September in Germany, followed by France, Spain, Italy and the U.K. in 2012. InterMune failed to win FDA approval last May, but it rebounded in December on a positive recommendation from a European drug advisory board.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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