The U.S. FDA has approved Eicos Sciences Inc.’s Aurlumyn (iloprost) for treating severe frostbite. The injectable vasodilator, which opens blood vessels and stops blood from clotting, is now approved for adults to reduce finger or toe amputations and is, according to the FDA, the first-ever treatment option for severe frostbite. The drug, also referred to as ES-2001, had the FDA’s priority review and orphan drug designations for treating severe frostbite.
The demand for semaglutide, a GLP-1 drug, and other popular prescription weight-loss drugs is adding to the U.S. FDA’s regulatory load as more and more companies are offering unapproved knockoffs of the products directly to consumers. The FDA posted two warning letters Feb. 13 – to Miami-based US Chem Labs and a New-York company, Synthetix Inc. doing business as Helix Chemical Supply – citing the companies for misbranding unapproved semaglutide and tirzepatide, also a GLP-1 drug, by marketing them on the Internet, along with claims about their therapeutic benefits.
Body: The U.K.’s Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has a program designed to facilitate more rapid market access for medical devices of urgent need, and now the agency has put money into the policy.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the circulatory system devices panel of the medical devices advisory committee for the U.S. FDA showed some love for Abbott Laboratories’ Triclip transcatheter edge-to edge repair (TEER) system for leaky tricuspid heart valves.
One down, eight to go. That’s the scorecard for the constitutional challenges to mandatory Medicare drug price negotiations now that a U.S. federal court has dismissed a suit filed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the National Infusion Center Association and the Global Colon Cancer Association.
The European Commission approved two therapies for progressive, genetic diseases: Biogen Inc.’s Friedreich’s ataxia drug, Skyclarys (omaveloxolone), and Crispr Therapeutics AG’s CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel, exa-cel).
The U.S. FDA has posted information on the regulatory review period for several medical devices that incorporate patented inventions, such as the determination for the Simplify artificial cervical disc by Simplify Medical Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif. According to the FDA, the company seeks to tack nearly 1,100 days back on to the patent in question, an additional three years that may play a significant role in the company’s attempt to monetize the patent in question.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has released a draft version of patent examiner guidelines to address the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the inventive process, reflecting the standing U.S. position that AI cannot be an inventor.
Insulet Corp. received the greenlight from EU regulators to combine its Omnipod 5 automated insulin delivery (AID) system with Abbott Laboratories Freestyle Libre 2 Plus sensor to treat individuals aged two years and older with type 1 diabetes.