Investors didn’t respond well to the U.S. FDA’s briefing document for the March 30 advisory committee meeting on Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) candidate. Shortly after the materials for the adcom were posted Monday, Amylyx (NASDAQ:AMLX) dropped from a morning high of $25.68 per share to an all-time low of $10.49 in the heaviest trading since the company went public in January. With share volume exceeding 15 million, Amylyx rebounded somewhat, ending the day at $16.01, down nearly 36% from its March 25 close of $25.
Pavmed Inc. implanted its Portio system in three patients in a first-in-human (FIH) study of its intraosseous infusion system and successfully infused fluids in all patients without complications. The Portio system allows long-term direct access to bone marrow for delivery of fluids, medications and other substances in individuals with poor venous access, kidney dialysis or adverse reactions to anticoagulants.
Innovent Biologics Co. Ltd. and Eli Lilly and Co. are "assessing next steps" for their jointly developed PD-1 inhibitor, sintilimab, following receipt of a complete response letter (CRL) from the U.S. FDA. The pair sought approval of a BLA for sintilimab plus pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of people with nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but found near-unanimous opposition from FDA advisers dissatisfied with China-only trial data submitted in support of the application. The medicine is already approved for multiple indications in China, where it’s marketed as Tyvyt.
The U.S. FDA has approved Novartis AG’s Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan, formerly referred to as 177Lu-PSMA-617) for treating adults with metastatic prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The treatment is the indication’s first FDA-approved targeted radioligand therapy that contains a radioisotope.
The FDA cleared a peripheral vascular occlusion product developed by Artio Medical Inc. The Solus Gold embolization device is indicated to obstruct or reduce the rate of blood flow in the peripheral vasculature.
Citing a court order for its haste, the U.S. FDA skipped the draft and went straight to issuing a final guidance that will change how certain ophthalmic drugs are regulated.
As congressional scrutiny of the U.S. FDA’s accelerated approval path continues, the agency is focusing research efforts into appropriate disclosure on direct-to-consumer websites about a drug’s accelerated approval and the status of confirmatory trials. Previous research by the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) found that 27% of DTC websites providing information about a drug with accelerated approval don’t disclose that the products are on the market through accelerated approval.
Former JHL Biotech Inc. CEO Racho Jordanov and former Chief Operating Officer Rose Lin were sentenced for their respective roles in conspiring to commit trade secret theft and wire fraud exceeding $101 million. The pair last summer admitted to obtaining confidential, proprietary, and trade-secret information from Roche Holding AG’s Genentech Inc. unit and using what they stole to reduce expenses and hasten the timeline of JHL’s efforts to develop biosimilars.
Much of the question of FDA regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is seen as revolving around changes to the statute, but that does not mean the FDA and other agencies are in wait-and-see mode. Representatives of both the FDA and Health Canada said on a March 22 webinar that guidances related to these algorithms will be posted later this year, thus opening the door to a more predictable premarket path for these products.
Murrysville, Pa.-based Philips Respironics Inc. has had its share of troubles with its devices for respiratory use, including several CPAP machines. The FDA reported March 21 that the company’s V60 and V60 Plus respirators are now the subjects of a class I recall due to the use of an expired adhesive that could ultimately lead to a shut-down of the devices, including instances in which the shut-down would not be accompanied by an alarm.