Ushering in a new era for the U.S. biosimilar marketplace, the FDA, on July 28, approved its first interchangeable biosimilar, which also will be the first to bring biosimilar competition to the U.S. insulin space. The honor went to Viatris Inc.’s Semglee, which the FDA recognized as both biosimilar to and interchangeable with Sanofi SA’s blockbuster drug Lantus (insulin glargine), a long-acting insulin analogue.

Polarityte Inc.’s Skinte product met primary and secondary endpoints in a randomized clinical trial evaluating healing of diabetic foot ulcers. Skinte is a human cellular and tissue-based product made from a patient’s own skin. Results from the trial and data from the product’s use from 2017 to 2021 during a period of enforcement discretion by the FDA were used by the company in its filing earlier this week of an investigational new drug application for Skinte.

Access Biologicals LLC brought online newly released seroconversion panels that measure the level of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in blood samples, allowing researchers to determine vaccine efficacy. The panels can detect the point when seroconversion occurs and assess the efficacy of a vaccine against new and existing strains of the novel coronavirus. To build the panels, the Vista, Calif.-based company collected blood samples prior to vaccination and after the first and second doses. The plasma was then tested for IgG antibodies to the S1 and S2 spike proteins of the novel coronavirus using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and chemiluminescent assays (CLIA).

The FDA’s July 27 webinar on medical device servicing and remanufacturing lent some clarity to the terms of a recent draft guidance on the subject, but there are several overarching policy concerns. The FDA’s Joshua Silverstein said on the webinar that the agency sees servicing as a type of manufacturing, a view that is contradicted by the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, which indicated earlier this year that third-party servicers are probably not subject to the regulations applied to manufacturers.

Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) notched its sixth tuck-in buy of the year, acquiring long-time partner and resorbable polymer maker Tepha Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The deal will facilitate expansion of BD’s surgical mesh offerings and drive growth in new areas of soft tissue repair, reconstruction and regeneration. Wall Street gave the Tepha deal a thumbs up. After hitting a high of $256.32 Tuesday, BD shares (NYSE:BDX) maintained a strong beat, closing up 2.11 at $254.69.

The FDA advisory hearing for the Transmedics Organ Care System (OCS) resulted in a unanimous vote in favor of the OCS’s safety and efficacy numbers, although there will be a considerable post-approval study requirement. The company was able to overcome a number of problems with the pivotal study that might otherwise have tanked the application, such as the lack of blinding of transplant surgeons, which the FDA said could have biased the determination of whether a liver was acceptable for transplant.

The FDA is working toward a rewrite of its Quality Systems Regulation (QSR) and ISO 13485, the internationally recognized quality management standard, but that project has yet to produce a draft rule despite several years of effort. The FDA’s Vidya Gopal highlighted the differences between the two approaches to questions such as management responsibility and staff resources, just two of many differences that will prove difficult to reconcile in any regulatory harmonization effort.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had previously reported it would more tightly scrutinize mergers and acquisitions with an eye toward the impact on competition, and voted July 21 to expand its authority to review these activities. The agency also voted to eliminate restrictions by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on servicing of their devices, thus putting both drug and device makers on alert that much more rigorous FTC enforcement has arrived.