Criticisms over the U.S. FDA’s use of advisory committees led the agency to hold a June 13 public hearing during which FDA commissioner Bob Califf said the agency is working to improve the experience of special government employees who take part in these hearings.
Even patent attorneys aren’t particularly collectively excited about standard essential patents, but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from signing a memorandum of understanding with the U.K. Intellectual Property Office to collaborate on policies related to these patents.
Just as it is for terminally ill cancer patients, time is of the essence for people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, the clinical meaningfulness of Eli Lilly and Co.’s donanemab is the time it gives patients before the disease progresses, Reisa Sperling, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the U.S. FDA’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee June 10.
A week after generating buzz with its proposed Nasdaq listing and plans to raise about $200 million, Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. withdrew its U.S. IPO filing, citing market conditions. The Australian radiopharma firm’s shares continue trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (TLX), where they closed June 14 at AU$16.61 (US$10.98), up AU15 cents.
The first patenting from San Francisco-based Ananya Health Inc. describes its development of a closed-loop cryoablation platform to freeze abnormal cells before they become cervical cancer. The company’s device achieves ablative temperatures without consumable gas, making the procedure portable, battery-powered, and ten times cheaper than traditional cryoablation.
A survey of 1,025 consumers conducted by remote patient monitoring company Vivalink Inc. found that 84% of respondents would be willing to participate in hospital-at-home monitoring if it allowed them to leave the hospital earlier. Further, of those who had participated in a hospital-at-home program, 84% reported a positive experience.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the FDA’s relaxed regulation of the abortion drug mifepristone when it ruled June 13 that the organizations challenging those changes lacked the standing to do so.
The Biosecure Act missed its first chance at a congressional ride June 11 when the U.S. House Rules Committee didn’t include it, as many had expected, on the list of potential riders the House will consider for its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass defense spending bill for fiscal 2025. But that doesn’t mean the bill will be stranded by the wayside.
Santa Ana Bio Inc. launched with combined series A and B rounds that pulled down $168 million for its precision immunology push in inflammatory diseases, with an aim of entering the clinic next year across several fronts.
Following a phase II/III failure, Stamford, Conn.-based Cara Therapeutics Inc. discontinued its only pipeline program, that of oral difelikefalin for moderate to severe pruritis in adults with notalgia paresthetica, placing the company’s future in question.