What a difference a U.S. FDA advisory committee meeting can make. In the wake of the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee voting 7-2 Sept. 7 to recommend approval of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) candidate, shares of the Cambridge, Mass.-based company (NASDAQ:AMLX) more than regained the value they lost in March when the same committee voted against approval of AMX-0035.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis candidate, AMX-0035, will get a rare second bite at the adcom apple Sept. 7. This time around, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company is looking to improve on its first performance by stressing the survival benefit of its drug.
In the hope of preventing thousands of hospitalizations and deaths over the next few months, the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) voted 13-1 Sept. 1 to recommend the use of Moderna Inc.’s and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE’s updated vaccines that contain components of both the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the omicron BA.4/5 subvariants as boosters.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. got good news when the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review posted a revised evidence report Aug. 4 that assessed the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of the company’s AMX-0035 and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America Inc.’s Radicava (edaravone) in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Continuing its evaluation of cancer drugs already on the U.S. market, the FDA will convene its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) Sept. 22 and 23 to consider two more approved drugs – Oncopeptides AB’s Pepaxto (melphalan flufenamide) and Secura Bio Inc.’s Copiktra (duvelisib).
Although it’s a latecomer to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., there is a wedge of opportunity for Novavax Inc.’s adjuvanted protein-based vaccine among the 10% of the U.S. adult population that has yet to get a first jab.
The U.S. FDA’s guidance to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, announced June 30, that they should develop modified bivalent boosters that include an omicron BA.4/5 spike protein component marks the beginning of a new era in the pandemic in which manufacturers are no longer driving the development of the vaccines.
Given that Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine will be a latecomer to the U.S. scene if it gets FDA authorization, it’s been cast in a supporting role to the lead being played by the mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE. But the data presented at the June 28 Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee meeting suggest the Novavax adjuvanted protein vaccine may have the chops to take on a larger role in taming the pandemic.
COVID-19 boosters for the fall should contain an omicron component, the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) said June 28, voting 19-2 to make that recommendation.
Armed with data but no crystal ball, the U.S. FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will be asked June 28 to predict the next-generation vaccines that will be needed to best respond to the COVID-19 futurescape. While Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Novavax Inc. will briefly present clinical data for their variant vaccines at the VRBPAC meeting, the discussion will be about the future of all COVID-19 vaccines being developed or authorized for the U.S. market.
