Riluzole Oral Suspension for ALS Treatment Approved By FDA

Officials with the FDA have approved riluzole (Tigultik, ITF Pharma) oral suspension for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), ITF Pharma announced in a press release.

Patients with ALS experience muscle weakness from the degeneration of motor neurons, typically affecting the arms and legs, speech, swallowing, and breathing. The oral suspension is the first and only easy-to-swallow thickened riluzole liquid, easing administration for the approximately 80% of patients with ALS who develop swallowing impairment, according to ITF Pharma.

“Having a therapeutic option designed to specifically overcome the challenges of disease-related dysphagia in ALS is a welcome step forward for the many doctors, caregivers, and people living with ALS who have relied on riluzole as the gold standard of treatment for more than 20 years to slow the progression of this devastating disease,” Hiroshi Mitsumoto, MD, DSc, Wesley J Howe professor of neurology at Columbia University at The Neurological Institute of New York and New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, said in the press release.

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