Roche said that the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for Xofluza® (baloxavir marboxil) for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza in otherwise healthy children aged five to less than 12 years of age who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours.

This marks the first single-dose oral influenza medicine approved in the US for children in this age group. Additionally, the FDA approved Xofluza for the prevention (post-exposure prophylaxis) of influenza in children aged five to less than 12 years of age following contact with someone with influenza.

“Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, influenza continues to be a threat to public health, and effective influenza antivirals remain critical to alleviating the burden on healthcare systems,” said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Roche’s Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. “Xofluza has proven to be an important tool in fighting and preventing influenza in adults as well as adolescents, and we are pleased to now offer households and younger children our single-dose oral treatment.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza can be a serious illness for young children. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic there have been significantly fewer influenza cases, likely due in large part to social distancing and mask wearing. However, in the US 2018-2019 influenza season, there were more than 6 million illnesses, thousands of hospitalisations and over 100 deaths among children aged five to 17 caused by influenza.

“Historically, school-aged children have played a significant role in the community transmission of influenza. The annual influenza vaccine continues to be the most important first step to prevent illness in children, though there can still be breakthrough cases where antiviral treatment is needed,” said Dr. Pedro Piedra, miniSTONE-2 Study Investigator and Professor of Molecular Virology, Microbiology and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “Today’s FDA approval provides children with a single-dose antiviral option, Xofluza, to treat influenza."

The FDA approval is based on results from two phase III studies: miniSTONE-2, which evaluated the use of Xofluza in children, and BLOCKSTONE, which evaluated Xofluza as a preventive treatment for household members, in both adults and children. The results from these studies were published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal and The New England Journal of Medicine respectively.