Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. (GBT) (NASDAQ: GBT) announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion recommending marketing authorization for Oxbryta® (voxelotor) tablets for the treatment of hemolytic anaemia due to sickle cell disease (SCD) in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older as monotherapy or in combination with hydroxyurea. Based on this CHMP opinion, a decision by the European Commission (EC), which authorizes marketing approval in the European Union, is expected in the first quarter of 2022. If approved by the EC, Oxbryta will receive marketing authorization in all EU member states and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Furthermore, GBT announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval of a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for Oxbryta tablets for the treatment SCD in children ages 4 to less than 12 years. This approval expands the previously approved use of Oxbryta to treat SCD in patients ages 12 years and older in the United States. The FDA also approved GBT’s separate New Drug Application (NDA) for Oxbryta tablets for oral suspension, a new dispersible, once-daily tablet dosage form suitable for patients ages 4 to less than 12 years as well as for older patients who have difficulty swallowing whole tablets. Oxbryta is the first and only approved medicine that directly targets sickle hemoglobin polymerization, the root cause of the sickling and destruction of red blood cells in SCD. For more information see press releases here, here, and here.