The U.S. Medicare program took several bites out of rates paid for radiation oncology services under the physician fee schedule, but stakeholders are again gaining traction on Capitol Hill with a plea for intervention.
Everest Medicines Ltd. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA for EVM-14, an off-the-shelf mRNA cancer vaccine targeting multiple tumor-associated antigens and designed to treat various cancers, including non-small-cell lung cancer and head and neck cancer.
Entrada Therapeutics Inc. has received authorization from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and research ethics committee to initiate a phase I/II study of ENTR-601-45 for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients with a confirmed mutation in the DMD gene amenable to exon 45 skipping.
The U.S. FDA rejected, for the second time, Elevar Therapeutics Inc.’s NDA of a novel combination therapy for advanced liver cancer, which comprised Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s PD-1 inhibitor camrelizumab and HLB Co. Ltd.’s small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, rivoceranib.
The U.S. FDA approved 16 drugs in February, up from 12 in January but still falling short of the 2024 monthly average of 19 approvals. Just two of those were new molecular entities (NMEs), continuing a slower pace compared to the year’s average of slightly more than four NMEs per month.
Several American states are forging into a legislative vacuum where regulation of AI is concerned as Congress continues to delay action. Adoption of AI regulations on a state level increases the risk of a fragmented regulatory landscape, as already exists in U.S. privacy law, further complicating the path forward for med-tech companies deploying AI algorithms.
The U.S. FDA’s approval of Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s kit for preparing prostate-specific membrane antigen-PET imaging for prostate cancer widens the opportunities for patients who live far away from large hospitals. The FDA’s nod for the imaging agent, TLX007-CDx, now branded as Gozellix, has a long shelf life and needs less equipment and preparation compared to some other agents.
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has obtained clearance from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to conduct clinical trials with SYS-6040 for advanced solid tumors.
The final U.S. Medicare national coverage determination for transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) devices comes with an expected coverage with evidence development mandate, but some analysts expect that TTVR devices will face competition from tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (T-TEER) devices, the subject of an impending national coverage analysis.