After more than a decade of industry pleading for guidance on Orange Book patent listings, the U.S. FDA is finally planning on answering that request this year. If the guidance that’s produced reflects the FTC’s position that device patents can’t be listed for combination products, it could overturn years of accepted practice and possibly hinder the development of new, more advanced drug administration technologies.
The U.S. FDA issued a complete response letter to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd.’s U.S. subsidiary, Satsuma Pharmaceuticals Inc., for its NDA for dihydroergotamine nasal powder (STS-101) for acute treatment of migraine, with or without aura, in adults. Shin Nippon acquired Satsuma for $220 million in April 2023 and gained rights to STS-101.
Safety concerns overrode benefit when the U.S. FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee (EMDAC) voted unanimously, 19-0, Sept. 21 that the potential risks of Intarcia Therapeutics’ ITCA-650 outweighed the compliance and A1C-lowering benefits the twice-yearly implantable exenatide-device combination product could provide for adults with type 2 diabetes.
A Sept. 21 U.S. FDA advisory committee meeting will either be a “Hail Mary” or a last gasp of life for ITCA-650, a twice-yearly implantable exenatide-device combination product intended to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. have entered into a joint development agreement that could revolutionize vaccines by developing a vaccine-delivery device combination product using Vaxxas’ high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) coupled with SK Bioscience’s typhoid vaccine, Skytyphoid.
Delcath Systems Inc. reported that the FDA approved its Hepzato Kit for the treatment of adults with unresectable hepatic-dominant metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM). The FDA nod also triggered a second tranche of financing of approximately $35 million from a private placement in March.
The FDA’s November 2021 draft guidance for contents of premarket submission for device software functions may have been a desperately needed update for a legacy 2005 guidance, but stakeholders see one glaring omission from the draft. Both the Advanced Medical Technology Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America pointed to the absence of sign-off by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) for the draft, a conspicuous omission because a combination product with software may include a drug regulated by CDER.
U.S. FDA regulation of combination products has always been complicated, and a new final guidance takes up the long-standing controversy over FDA review of these applications. The final guidance makes explicit the possibility that the individual components of a cross-labeled combination product will be reviewed separately, a concession that industry saw as critical to ensure that these applications can make it through the FDA gauntlet without undue delay.
Cansino Biologics Inc. has entered a development and commercial supply partnership with Aerogen Ltd. for an inhalable version of its COVID-19 vaccine, Convidecia, also known as Ad5-nCoV. Cansino will combine Convidecia with Aerogen’s vibrating mesh aerosol drug delivery technology to produce a consistent droplet size for optimal lung deposition. The technology delivers up to six times more medication to the lungs compared to jet nebulizers. It also enables consistency and drug denaturing to improve efficacy. Cansino and Aerogen did not disclose the deal’s commercial terms.
LONDON – The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA) is inviting manufacturers to submit electronic cigarettes for approval as medical devices, after drawing up new guidance on the standards that will be required for approval. The move means the U.K. could become the first country in the world where e-cigarettes are available on prescription as smoking cessation aids.