FDA panel - BioMarin muscle wastage drug data not persuasive

(Reuters) - A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday indicated that efficacy data submitted by BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc on its experimental drug for treating a muscle wastage disorder was not persuasive. The FDA panel did not officially vote on an approval of the drug. However, 15 out of 17 members were of the opinion that the lack of statistical significance in BioMarin's late-stage study weakened findings from two earlier studies. The drug, drisapersen, is being developed to treat Duchenne's muscular dystrophy - a disease that affects one in 3,600 newborn boys and causes rapid muscle degeneration. (Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi and Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)