In April 2024, Ascendis Pharma announced that the MHRA had approved YORVIPATH (palopegteriparatide), their new parathyroid hormone, as a treatment for chronic hypoparathyroidism in adults in the UK.
You can read their press release here https://investors.ascendispharma.com/news-releases/news-release-details/united-kingdoms-mhra-approves-yorvipathr-palopegteriparatide
What is Yorvipath?
YORVIPATH is a prodrug of parathyroid hormone (PTH 1-34) administered by injection once daily. Known as Transcon PTH in the USA it has shown very good results in Phase III trials with patients able to come off calcium and alfacalcidol and improve kidney function and quality of life. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36271471/
What happens next?
The next stage is to get approval from NICE. This is how a NICE guideline is developed. https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/our-programmes/nice-guidance/nice-guidelines/how-we-develop-nice-guidelines
We had the first committee meeting. The draft NICE guidance has been published and unfortunately they have not recommended Yorvipath.
You can read and comment here. Whilst we appreciate this is incredibly disappointing, this is not the end of the road, and not unusual for new medicines. We will be posting a more detailed update about what this means soon.
Individual Funding Requests
In the meantime you may be able to access Yorvipath via an Individual Funding Request if your case warrants it. Your consultant endocrinologist must apply to Ascendis Pharma. Please contact Parathyroid UK for contact details.
Read more about IFR here https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/our-services/individual-requests-for-funding/