The U.S. FDA approved the country’s first two interchangeable biosimilars, or copy products, of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc./Bayer AG’s Eylea (aflibercept) on May 20, to treat four eye-related conditions. The FDA granted the approvals to U.S.- and India-based Johnson & Johnson Services Inc./Biocon Biologics Ltd.’s Yesafili (aflibercept-jbvf; M-710) and South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd.’s Opuviz (aflibercept-yszy; SB-15).

Shaking up corporate and pipeline structure, San Diego-based cancer developer Erasca Inc. in-licensed two assets from China-based biopharmas in all-cash deals, while laying off 18% of its workforce, primarily in drug discovery. The flurry of announcements made on May 16, which included $160 million raised in private placement, showed that Erasca would scrap three existing pipeline assets – ERAS-007, ERAS-801 and ERAS-4 – and reshape development to a RAS-targeting franchise.

Zai Lab Ltd., of Shanghai and Cambridge, Mass., has been on a regulatory roll in China, gaining approval of Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Augtyro (repotrectinib) for lung cancer on May 12 and NMPA acceptance of subcutaneous Vyvgart‘s (efgartigimod alfa SC) supplemental BLA with priority review on May 14.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) has found itself on the wrong end of an enforcement action by a federal attorney’s office, which had alleged that CCF had made false statements to the government regarding three grant awards.

A renewed focus on telehealth and telemedicine may be pumping new life into remote patient monitoring for heart failure, which seems to be the case for the Cardiomems device by Abbott Inc.

The major players in electrophysiology – Boston Scientific Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic plc, Abbot Laboratories – showed up in force at the 2024 Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Boston May 16-19 to tout their pulsed field ablation devices and study results.

The FDA has cleared an IND application for GC-1130A, a treatment for mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA (MPS IIIA, Sanfilippo syndrome type A) being jointly developed by GC Biopharma Corp. and Novel Pharma Inc.

Ultrasound cyclodestruction may not be the darling of American ophthalmologists and their patients dealing with glaucoma, but that may soon change thanks to a recent move by the U.S. FDA. The agency has down-classified these devices from class III to class II in a move that may prompt competition for current device-based methods of treating glaucoma, including widely used laser-based treatments.