About two months after Astrazeneca plc said its application for sipavibart (AZD-3152) had been accepted by the EMA for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against COVID-19 in immunocompromised people, Invivyd Inc. unveiled positive 180-day exploratory efficacy data from the company’s ongoing Canopy phase III trial with Pemgarda (pemivibart) in the same indication – and made known less happy news from regulators on the other side of the pond.
Five months after getting a complete response letter from the U.S. FDA, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. has landed conditional European marketing approval for odronextamab, a bispecific antibody for treating lymphoma. Now named Ordspono, the approval is for treating adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, after two or more lines of therapy. The European Commission also approved Merck & Co. Inc.’s Winrevair (sotatercept) for pulmonary arterial hypertension and ARS Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Eurneffy (inhaled epinephrine) for anaphylaxis.
The long struggle by Boston-based I2o Therapeutics Inc.’s business unit Intarcia Therapeutics to get long-lasting exenatide for diabetes onto the market ended with a final thumbs-down from the U.S. FDA because of safety concerns. At issue was ITCA-650, a twice-yearly implantable exenatide-device combo meant to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved Innovent Biologics Inc.’s Dupert (fulzerasib) as the first KRAS G12C inhibitor in China to treat select patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The U.K. has become the first country in Europe to approve Leqembi (lecanemab), but as the breakthrough decision was announced, the health technology assessment body NICE said the benefits are too small to justify the cost of providing the Alzheimer’s disease therapy on the National Health Service (NHS).
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s broad rule banning noncompete employment clauses has been struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In a final judgment from Judge Ada Brown, the court set aside the noncompete rule, saying it won’t be enforced or take effect as had been planned on Sept. 4.
Drug and device sponsors conducting clinical trials in China to support U.S. FDA approval may want to reconsider their choice of trial sites, as trials conducted at hospitals and clinics affiliated with China’s military or in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region could be in for increased scrutiny.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. suffered an unsurprising hitch in the form of a complete response letter (CRL) related to linvoseltamab, a bispecific antibody designed to bridge B-cell maturation antigen on multiple myeloma cells containing CD3-expressing T cells, for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
The U.S. FDA approved Janssen Biotech Inc.’s Rybrevant (amivantamab-vmjw) plus a new oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor called Lazcluze (lazertinib) as a first-line combination treatment to treat select non-small-cell lung cancers.
While the Biden administration continues applauding the savings it claims will be delivered by the first round of Medicare negotiations, many U.S. patients and their families are worried about the cost of the biopharma price-setting program – a cost they measure not in dollars and cents, but in worsening illness and lives that may be lost to a downturn in innovation and an upturn in barriers to access.
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