FDA Approves Gout Medication
New York - The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new gout medication for the first time in over 40 years. Uloric is produced and marketed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, the makers of Prevacid heartburn medication and Actos diabetes medication.
Uloric, aka feboxostat, will be available in 40mg and 80mg tablets for use by patients experiencing the painful symptoms of gout, caused by increased uric acid in the blood. Most common in men over 40, over 5 million Americans suffer from gout, which causes painful swelling and stiffness in the joints and is an inflammatory type of arthritis.
Uloric lowers the amount of uric acid in the blood and has been approved by the FDA as safe and effective for use by symptomatic hyperuricemic patients.
Yasuchika Hasegawa, the president of Takeda’s parent company stated:
“The approval of ULORIC offers patients and healthcare providers in the US for the first time in 40 years, a novel treatment option for patients who have hyperuricemia with gout, where there are still unmet clinical needs.”
The FDA approval comes after the European Medicines Agency approval of Ipsen last year. Ipsen is the European name for feboxostat. Feboxostat was first discovered by Teijin Pharma of Japan.