Mixed opinions from the U.S. FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee last month didn’t stop the agency from green-lighting an expanded label for Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) to include adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM) after two or more prior lines of therapy including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.
In finalizing its 2025 Medicare Advantage and Part D rule, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) all but did away with the coverage differences between biosimilars and interchangeables.
With nine months to go before their introduction, the industry is flagging many uncertainties around the proposed guidelines for implementing joint clinical assessments.
Less than a month after disclosing that its confirmatory phase III trial of Relyvrio (sodium phenylbutyrate plus taurursodiol) fell short of its endpoint, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. is withdrawing the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug from the market.
In a long and winding regulatory road that began with two complete response letters 15 years ago, Allschwil, Switzerland-based Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. finally gained U.S. FDA approval of its intravenous cephalosporin antibiotic, Zevtera (ceftobiprole medocaril sodium), to treat Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.
The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing recruitment/retention issues are making it difficult for the U.S. FDA’s bioresearch monitoring program to keep up with the on-site clinical research inspections that are a cornerstone of the preapproval process for new drugs, biological products and medical devices. The resulting delays could threaten the approval timelines for many products.
Building D&D Pharmatech Inc. has been a rollercoaster ride, according to CEO Seulki Lee. The U.S. and Korea-based biotech is on another ascent, having scored U.S. FDA fast track designation for its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) drug, ahead of its third attempt at a public listing.
Does the NIH have the ability to screen for U.S. security issues in its award of research grants? That question is at the heart of an April 2 letter the Republican leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent to the Government Accountability Office in which it asked the government watchdog to examine the extent to which the NIH “adequately safeguards research funds from national security concerns related to the Chinese military or over the unethical use of human beings in research studies, especially from entities of concern in China.”
The U.S. FDA accepted for review Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.’s and Astrazeneca plc’s BLA for datopotamab deruxtecan to treat adults with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who have received prior systemic therapy for unresectable or metastatic disease.
Yes, even a phase III protocol for a “failed” trial can constitute prior art, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told a lower court April 1 when it returned Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.’s patent squabble for a do-over.