The U.S. FDA approved 28 new drugs in June, marking the third-highest month in BioWorld’s records, following March 2024’s 30 approvals and June 2020's 29 approvals, and a significant increase from May’s 11 FDA drug approvals. For context, the FDA approved an average of around 16 drugs per month in 2023, 12.5 per month in 2022, and 17 per month in both 2021 and 2020.
The U.S. FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has rewired its organizational structure on several fronts, including a promotion of its communication function into a “super office,” which the agency said will help it be more agile and responsive to its strategic priorities.
The U.S. FDA advised Agenus Inc. to conduct a phase III trial for its immunotherapy combination, botensilimab (bot) and balstilimab (bal), instead of seeking accelerated approval based on phase II data, sending company shares plunging by 58.8% July 18.
The bill the U.S. Senate passed to prune biologic patent thickets could be among the first in a legislative thicket aimed at prescription drug prices to make it through the Senate before the year ends.
The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means held a field hearing in the State of Utah, during which committee chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), highlighted the need to continue to incentivize life science research in the U.S. Smith remarked that Republican members of the committee have formed “tax teams” to find ways that the tax code can be tweaked to “better incentivize research and development here in the U.S.,” another sign that the well-being of life science commerce is seen as a macroeconomic imperative in Washington.
The coverage with evidence development (CED) process employed by the U.S. Medicare program may suffer from underutilization, but the authors of a new article in Value in Health see the attendant problems as administrative in nature. The issues include, but are not limited to, a lack of predictability as to when a CED study would be required for coverage of a medical device.
Myogenica Inc., a University of Minnesota startup company, has obtained IND approval from the FDA for Myopaxon, an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived muscle stem cell product to regenerate skeletal muscle. A planned study will evaluate intramuscular injections of Myopaxon in non-ambulatory adult patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means held a field hearing in the State of Utah, during which committee chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), highlighted the need to continue to incentivize life science research in the U.S. Smith remarked that Republican members of the committee have formed “tax teams” to find ways that the tax code can be tweaked to “better incentivize research and development here in the U.S.,” another sign that the well-being of life science commerce is seen as a macroeconomic imperative in Washington.
Guardant Health Inc.agreed to pay more than $900,000 to settle allegations that the company’s human resources office hired a relative and a friend of a physician who persuaded the company to make the hires in a quid pro quo for orders of Guardant’s tests. The U.S. Department of Justice said the penalties could have been much greater but for the company’s cooperation in the investigation, which disclosed that at least one of these hires was not qualified for the position.
In denying Medicaid patients with sickle cell disease or transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia access to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s fertility preservation program, which is intended to counteract a side effect of the company’s gene-editing therapy, Casgevy, “the federal government now stands as the barrier between thousands of predominantly Black Americans and the necessary medical care that would protect their basic right to have biological children,” Vertex said in a lawsuit filed July 15.
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