U.S. FDA approvals in 2022 are down by 31.3% compared with last year and clearances for new molecular entities are at the bottom of all recent years. As of Dec. 20, the agency had approved 143 drugs and biologics in 2022, including supplemental filings, just slightly higher than the 138 approvals in 2016, but far behind the 208 approvals recorded in both 2021 and 2017.

As the days have grown darker throughout November, global regulatory activity and U.S. approvals have continued to drop, marking the month as the slowest of 2022. Compared with this time last year, regulatory news is down by 9% and FDA approvals are down by a quarter. On top of that, new molecular entity clearances in the U.S. are at a six-year low.

With labeling discussions begun for TG Therapeutics Inc.’s ublituximab to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis, Wall Street was optimistic about the PDUFA date of Dec. 28 assigned to the glycoengineered CD20 monoclonal antibody. Shares of New York-based TG (NASDAQ:TGTX) closed Nov. 11 at $9.34, up 91 cents, or 10.8%, having risen more than 52% over the previous five days. With late-cycle review talks with the U.S. FDA done, ublituximab seemed well on its way.

Despite a busy September, U.S. FDA approvals and global regulatory news fell in October to the lowest point this year. So far in 2022, the FDA has approved 127 drugs and biologics, including supplemental filings. This is 25% less than each of the last two years, which had 170 approvals in 2021 and 169 approvals in 2020 through the end of October. The last time approvals were lower than this year was 2016 when there were 121.

The U.S. Congress has finally managed to pass legislation that reauthorizes several FDA user fee programs, but the final vote came on the last day of the federal fiscal year and addressed a stripped-down version of previous user fee bills. While several key considerations survived the shift to a lean bill, the FDA will have to wait for another day to be authorized to regulate lab-developed tests and to revise the accelerated approval program for pharmaceuticals, measures that may be revisited before the end of the current calendar year.

While U.S. FDA approvals are down by 27% in 2022, the agency was busy throughout the month of September, clearing seven new molecular entities (NMEs), the most for any month this year.

U.S. FDA approvals in 2022 are down by more than 30%, while new molecular entity approvals have been cut in half. So far this year, the U.S. FDA has approved 93 drugs and biologics, including expansions into new indications. In comparison with each of the last three years, it is a significant drop. There were 136 approvals in 2021, 143 in 2020 and 134 in 2019 announced by the end of August.

The U.S. FDA has approved fewer drugs and biologics in the first half of 2022 than in each of the five prior years and only one new molecular entity has received clearance since the end of May. While the volume of regulatory news is slightly down from last year, FDA approvals are showing a much deeper decline of 19.8%.

Global regulatory activity has fallen slightly, partially due to a decline in pandemic activity, and U.S. FDA approvals of drugs and biologics are at their lowest levels in five years.

The legislation that would renew a number of FDA user fee programs, the Food and Drug Amendments Act (FDA Act) of 2022, has passed the first legislative hurdle in a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, but there are several issues with the bill. According to members of the subcommittee, the issues include an absence of provisions for medical device servicing, and the absence of legislation for FDA regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs), issues that are unlikely to be resolved before the legislation is passed out of the House.