As an ever-increasing share of companies seek signs of efficacy for investigational drugs in early stage studies, single-arm trials to confirm those effects and support marketing applications are also becoming more common. Now, China’s Center for Drug Evaluation has released draft guidelines on how single-arm trials can be regulated, used to support the new drug application for cancer drugs, and accelerate oncology drug development.
Japan is establishing a centralized infectious disease crisis management agency that will be under direct control of the prime minister. One of the goals is to better clarify the chain of command and to bring together resources and COVID-19 task forces from the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The U.S. FDA’s guidance to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, announced June 30, that they should develop modified bivalent boosters that include an omicron BA.4/5 spike protein component marks the beginning of a new era in the pandemic in which manufacturers are no longer driving the development of the vaccines.
Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said it intends to file a BLA with the U.S. FDA for its subcutaneous bispecific antibody epcoritamab, for patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma in the second half of 2022.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Insightec, Livemetric, Xoran Technologies.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: ABVC, Ascentage, Aura, Bavarian Nordic, Nurix, Pfizer, Phanes, Skye.
GE Healthcare issued a class I recall for Carescape R860 ventilators that covers more than 4,000 units distributed in the U.S., which was necessitated by problems with the battery backup component. No injuries or deaths have been reported in connection with the problem.
As was the case for all medical device inspections, the Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the participant regulators agreed to allow the use of remote audits to fill in for live MDSAP inspections. This program has been renewed again through the end of September 2022, but the sponsoring regulatory agencies said this will be the last extension, barring exceptional circumstances.
South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted marketing authorization to SK Bioscience Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine, Skycovione (GB-510), marking the country’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine to be approved. The company has already signed an advanced purchase agreement with the Korea Centers for Disease Control for 10 million doses of the vaccine.
The U.S. FDA has put five phase III studies of Sanofi SA’s potential multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis blockbuster tolebrutinib on partial clinical hold after several cases of liver injury were identified after exposure to the drug. Sanofi said new recruitment in the U.S. is paused and participants who have been part of the trial for fewer than 60 days should stop taking tolebrutinib, although those taking the drug for longer can continue.
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