If the U.S. FDA has its way, biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars would no longer be a difference with a distinction – at least when it comes to labeling. Instead of distinguishing between the two, the agency is recommending that the labeling for both follow-ons include a “biosimilarity statement.”
Five years after Gilead Sciences Inc. gave up on momelotinib in the wake of two phase III failures in myelofibrosis, the JAK1/2 and ACVR1 inhibitor has found its way to the market in the hands of GSK plc. Branded Ojjaara, the drug gained U.S. FDA approval for use in intermediate- or high-risk myelofibrosis patients with anemia regardless of prior administration with JAK inhibitors such as Jakafi (ruxolitinib, Incyte Corp.).
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Almirall, Argenx, Ascendis, Astrazeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Hemogenyx, Iovance, Merck, Moderna, PTC, UCB, Vertex.
“We’re going to battle,” PTC Therapeutics Inc. CEO Matthew Klein said, responding to a surprise negative opinion from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on converting the conditional marketing authorization to full status for Translarna (ataluren) in the treatment of nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The opinion applies to the renewal of the existing conditional authorization, too.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Alnylam, Dizal, Hemogenyx, Innocare, Neurocrine, Oncopeptides, Oscotec.
The U.S. FTC put brand drug companies on notice Sept. 14 when the commissioners unanimously voted, 3-0, to issue a policy statement recognizing that improperly listed patents in the FDA’s Orange Book “may constitute an unfair method of competition.”
Supporting their conclusions with data from the same phase III study, the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted a positive opinion for extending the use of Oncopeptides AB’s Pepaxti (melflufen) to earlier lines of treating relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma even as the FDA dug in its heels about withdrawing the drug from the U.S. market.
A U.S. FDA advisory committee’s backing keeps Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Onpattro (patisiran) on the road to a supplemental approval in treating a rare heart disease, but it couldn’t stop the company stock from sliding. Shares (NASDAQ:ALNY) closed Sept. 14 down 8.8% at $193.06, the day after the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 9-3 that patisiran’s benefits outweigh the risks in treating cardiomyopathy of transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Astellas, Aston, Bioray, Madrigal, Moderna, Morphosys, Nurexone, Rocket, Takeda.
To streamline the development of biosimilars and align it with current analytical science, regulators across the globe are reevaluating a routine requirement for comparative clinical efficacy studies for biosimilar candidates.
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