PFIZER Australia has announced the TGA approval of Velsipity (etrasimod) for treating adults with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis (UC).
This new medication is intended for patients who have not responded to conventional, biologic, or Janus kinase inhibitor therapies.
Velsipity is administered as a once-daily 2mg tablet starting from the first day of treatment.
It works as a sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator, reducing the number of activated lymphocytes in the tissue by partially and reversibly blocking their movement from lymphoid organs into the blood.
The important approval comes as an estimated 100,000 people in Australia live with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, and this number is expected to increase in the future.
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