CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 15, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:AEGR), an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat severe lipid disorders, announced it has received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Orphan Product Development for its lead drug candidate, lomitapide, for the treatment of familial chylomicronemia (FC). Lomitapide is currently being evaluated in an ongoing pivotal Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), and the Company expects to launch a separate clinical trial to evaluate lomitapide as a treatment for FC in the second half of 2011.
