With the number of high-priced cell and gene therapies expected to grow dramatically over the next decade, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is asking for input from patients, doctors, manufacturers, payers and policy wonks on how to pay for the treatments and ensure patient access when they become more mainstream across the ultra-rare disease spectrum.
The U.S. FDA has approved Novartis AG’s Fabhalta (iptacopan) as the first oral monotherapy for adults with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare blood disease that impairs blood cell production. This is the only factor B inhibitor of the immune system’s complement pathway and is expected to be on the market before December ends. Fabhalta has plenty of competition from already-approved therapies and more treatments are in development.
The unique device identifier (UDI) might not be the most exciting U.S. FDA enforcement mandate for most of regulated industry, but the FDA’s Keisha Thomas indicated that compliance is less than adequate in the agency’s view.
The COVID-19 pandemic took a huge bite out of the U.S. FDA’s ability to conduct inspections in a timely manner, but the FDA’s Douglas Stearn said the agency has nonetheless ramped up these activities.
Intuitive Ventures, the investment arm of Intuitive Surgical Inc., closed a $150 million fundraising round for its second fund, which will focus on investments in startups in three areas: precision diagnostics and interventions, digital ecosystems and improving health care access and coordination. Intuitive Surgical’s first venture fund raised $100 million that has been used to support more than 10 early-stage companies.
The U.S. FDA’s draft rule for regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) was accorded a mere 60 days for comment, but nonetheless drew support from a number of stakeholders, including Foundation Medicine of Cambridge, Mass.
The U.S. FDA’s advisory hearing on multi-cancer detection (MCD) tests suggests that the premarket requirements for these tests will be rigorous, if only because the agency stated at the outset of the hearing that it sees these tests as class III devices. However, the advisory committee also suggested that a registry be established to track outcomes for these tests, a requirement that is likely to prove expensive and time-consuming to fulfill.
Eli Lilly and Co., through its Loxo@Lilly oncology unit, secured its second accelerated approval for non-covalent Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor Jaypirca (pirtobrutinib), this time to treat adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma. The U.S. FDA approval of 100-mg and 50-mg tablets is for patients who have received two prior lines of therapy, including another BTK inhibitor and a BCL-2 inhibitor. It is based on phase I/II data from a subset of 108 patients participating in the open-label, single-arm, multi-cohort Bruin trial.
The U.S. FDA opted not to pursue one form of medical device harmonization via the Global Harmonization Working Party (GHWP), as it reported it will withdraw from the organization.
The U.S. FDA put out a safety warning Nov. 28 that antiseizure drugs levetiracetam and clobazam can cause a rare but serious hypersensitivity drug reaction that may start as a rash but can progress to injure internal organs. In addition, U.K. health care providers are being told to get a plan in place now to implement the first phase of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s new regulatory measures to reduce the risks of valproate, a treatment for epilepsy and bipolar disorder.
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