PERTH, Australia – As New Zealand and Australia prepare to open their economies, regulators in these two neighboring countries are taking very different approaches to regulating COVID-19 devices with New Zealand restricting point-of-care tests, while Australia imposes tougher postmarket activities.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting medical devices and technologies, including: Bedfont Scientific, Philosys, Rutgers Clinical Genomics Laboratory, Spectrum Solutions, University of Kentucky.
HONG KONG – South Korea’s Bridge Biotherapeutics Inc. wrapped up the week by announcing its awaited IND clearance for its epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, BBT-176, for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from the country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) on May 7.
BEIJING – Beijing-headquartered Canbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. is to add another source of income after Chinese regulators approved Nerlynx (neratinib) to be marketed for the extended adjuvant treatment of adult patients with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer following adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy.
HONG KONG – Japan has become the first country in the world to approve Veklury (remdesivir), Gilead Sciences Inc.’s experimental drug, to treat COVID-19. The fast approval was based on U.S. data and that country’s emergency use of the drug to tackle the pandemic, although it is unclear whether the drug is safe or effective for treating COVID-19.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Amgen, Arch, Bridge, Cynata, Cytokinetics, Junshi, Pluristem, Redhill, Sesen, Takeda.
Just days after Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences Inc. gained emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA for antiviral Veklury (remdesivir) for the treatment of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19, Japan invoked its own exceptional approval pathway to give the drug the green light to treat patients with severe COVID-19.
The challenges to deploy diagnostic and surveillance testing for the COVID-19 pandemic will persist at least until a vaccine is ready if not well beyond that milestone. The state of COVID-19 testing as a regulated sector is a complex intersection of new and old technologies, questionable accuracy, availability hurdles, supply chain interruptions and problems with interpretation of results.
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