The timing is ripe for a robust biosimilar market in China, given the rapid increase of novel biologics approved to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases in the country over the past decade and the looming patent cliffs for several established biologics. As of December, the NMPA had approved more than 20 biosimilars that were developed in China. Most of those referenced just two biologics – Roche AG’s cancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab) and Abbvie Inc.’s immunology drug Humira (adalimumab). In 2022, the oncology and immunology biosimilar market in China garnered sales of about $2 billion, according to Clarivate estimates. To reach their full potential in China though, biosimilars must win over prescribers and patients.

Follow-on biologic makers in China have been working to capitalize on looming patent cliffs of blockbuster biologics. Advancing biosimilars of denosumab (Prolia/Xgeva; Amgen Inc.) and semaglutide are the latest examples.

The U.S. FDA granted fast track designation to Telix Pharmaceutical Ltd.’s TLX101-CDx for glioma imaging as the firm prepares to file its NDA in the first half of 2024, a Telix spokesperson told BioWorld.

South Korea’s Eubiologics Co. Ltd. said it gained the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prequalification designation on April 16 for its simplified oral cholera vaccine, approved as Euvichol-S.

The long-term use of ventricular assist devices is becoming a problem for at least some of these devices, as demonstrated by the recall of the Heartmate II and Heartmate 3 devices by Abbott Laboratories’ Abbott Vascular division due to obstruction of the outflow graft used to attach the device to the human heart.

With the recent hack of Change Healthcare back in the news, a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives took up the subject of cybersecurity, which included only a couple of mentions of medical devices. However, witnesses at the hearing emphasized the role of the federal government in thwarting foreign cybersecurity threats against health care facilities, with John Riggi of the American Hospital Association stating, “we need the [federal] government to go after bad actors overseas.”

Icecure Medical Ltd. submitted data to the U.S. FDA seeking de novo marketing authorization for its Prosense system to treat patients with early stage T1 invasive breast cancer in combination with adjuvant hormone therapy. Prosense is a minimally invasive cryoablation technology that freezes and destroys tumors, both malignant and benign.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to the active ingredient in Soligenix Inc.’s Marvax, a heat stable subunit protein vaccine of recombinantly expressed Marburg marburgvirus (MARV) glycoprotein, for the prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis against MARV infection.