The risk and benefit of Pfizer Inc.’s oral sickle cell disease drug Oxbryta (voxelotor) has flipped, prompted by what the company called new clinical data indicating “an imbalance in vaso-occlusive crises and fatal events” that need more study. Based on an EMA recommendation, Pfizer said it is voluntarily recalling all lots of Oxbryta from wherever it’s approved worldwide. Pfizer also is shuttering its Oxbryta clinical studies and expanded access programs.
Nine years on from securing $3.84 million for a phase I clinical trial to test the formulation, with results showing it overcame side effects that had confounded its forerunner, the schizophrenia treatment Karxt met its PDUFA date Sept. 26 with no decision by midday. If approved, the fixed combination of xanomeline-trospium will be the first in a new drug class, and as a dual M1/M4 muscarinic agonist, the first new therapy to act via a novel mechanism for the serious psychiatric disorder in over 50 years.
China’s National Medical Products Administration has approved Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd.’s rivastigmine transdermal patch to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Developed by Sino Biopharm, the patch is the first domestically produced rivastigmine transdermal patch approved for marketing. Rivastigmine is a cholinesterase inhibitor used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare granted new drug approvals and expanded indications for conditions like cancer, insomnia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) Sept. 24, including Eli Lilly and Co.’s Kisunla (donanemab) for early symptomatic AD.
The U.S. FDA’s inspection of two facilities run by San Francisco-based Irhythm Technologies Inc., illuminated some of the usual problems with corrective and preventive action. The agency indicated that problems with skin irritation associated with the company’s Zio device should have been handled as medical device reports, a view the company apparently did not share.
Palisade Bio Inc. has submitted a clinical trial application (CTA) for PALI-2108 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis, following a pre-CTA consultation meeting with Health Canada. Pending clearance, the company anticipates initiating a phase I study by year-end.
The FDA has awarded U.S. orphan drug designation to Eydisbio Inc.’s EYD-001 (formerly HS-276), a highly selective and potent, orally bioavailable TAK1 inhibitor for the treatment of systemic sclerosis. Eydisbio plans to initiate clinical trials in the near future.
The U.S. FDA announced a class I recall declared by Baxter Healthcare Corp., of Deerfield, Ill., for the automated compounding inlets used with the company’s Exactomix compounding systems due to the risk of particulate matter in the inlets.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded a patent case to district court after finding that a patent applicant need not invoke identical terminology when describing a central feature of a catheter technology across multiple patents.
With two drugs cleared by the U.S. FDA for Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) in less than seven days, Wall Street was pondering the differences between the compounds, given what’s known so far about each. Most recently, the FDA approved Intrabio Inc.’s Aqneursa (levacetylleucine) on its PDUFA date for the treatment of neurological manifestations of NPC in adults and pediatric patients weighing at least 15 kg, making Aqneursa the only approved stand-alone therapy indicated for NPC. On Sept. 20, Zevra Therapeutics Inc. won FDA clearance for Miplyffa (arimoclomol) as the first treatment for NPC.
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