Rather than reinventing the wheel for every gene therapy that uses genome editing, the U.S. FDA is advising sponsors on leveraging existing knowledge, be it publicly available or platform-based, to more efficiently advance their products across multiple stages of development.
While the U.S. Congress has yet to address the artificial line it created between biosimilars and interchangeables when it passed the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act in 2010, the FDA is erasing that distinction for all practical purposes.
At long last, the U.S. FDA finalized guidance on using predetermined change control plans in submissions for medical devices that include artificial intelligence. The guidance, “Marketing Submission Recommendations for a Predetermined Change Control Plan for Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Device Software Functions,” aims to support the iterative improvement central to many algorithms while minimizing potential issues with safety and efficacy.
Round 2 of the U.S. Medicare price negotiations officially began late Oct. 2 with CMS’ release of its final playbook and timeline, which build on lessons learned from the first round and comments on a draft negotiations guidance that was published in May. In response to the feedback CMS received, the second round will allow for more patient-focused sessions and offer increased engagement with the makers of the drugs selected for negotiations.
Thanks to technological advances, the U.S. FDA is reducing the quantity of reserve drug samples that must be retained from bioavailability and bioequivalence studies.
In keeping with federal standards for classifying race and ethnicity data, the U.S. FDA issued a draft revision to broaden its 2016 guidance on the collection of such data in clinical trials.
Drug guidances are still pouring forth from the U.S. FDA as 2023 winds to an end. The latest batch deals with issues as varied as the reformulation of drug products that use carbomers manufactured with benzene, potency assurance for cellular and gene therapies, the quality of topical eye treatments, and the development of drugs and biologics for rare diseases.
With the clock ticking down on 2023, the U.S. FDA seems to be scurrying to push final guidances out the door before the new year. This week, the agency has finalized several guidances, ranging from the development of monoclonal antibodies to treat or prevent COVID-19 to the use of real-world data in drug development.
As COVID-19 vaccine development continues, the U.S. FDA is releasing a revised version of its 2020 guidance, “Development and licensure of vaccines to prevent COVID-19.”
