There’s no denying that Johnson & Johnson’s Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel) and Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) show clinical benefit as they seek to move up in the line of treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. But the question that will be put to the U.S. FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee March 15 is whether the benefit outweighs a risk of early deaths seen with both CAR T therapies.

Although Geron Corp.’s imetelstat met its primary and key secondary endpoints in a phase III study, the U.S. FDA is questioning the magnitude and durability of the effect of the first-in-class telomerase inhibitor as a second-line treatment of transfusion-dependent anemia in adults with low- to intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes. The agency’s concerns resulted in more than an 12% stock tumble March 12 after the FDA released its briefing document two days ahead of an Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee meeting, in which the panel will be asked to vote on whether imetelstat’s benefits outweigh its risks.

U.S. deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco recently outlined some new programs related to federal enforcement across the economy, including some novel elements related to artificial intelligence. However, the more important take-away, according to Preston Pugh of Crowell & Moring LLP, is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to work to make the legal environment more friendly to would-be whistleblowers, thus increasing the risk for companies inside and outside the life sciences.

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion Inc. submitted a BLA to the U.S. FDA on March 10 to gain approval for its Xolair (omalizumab; Novartis AG) biosimilar, CT-P39, across major indications of asthma, food allergy and chronic spontaneous urticaria.