Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. FDA, took his turn before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee March 6, a week ahead of the committee’s confirmation votes on both him and Jay Bhattacharya as the next NIH director. The committee votes will set the stage for the full Senate to vote on confirming both nominees later this month.

The first treatment for macular telangiectasia type 2 is set to enter the market following U.S. FDA approval of NT-501 (revakinagene taroretcel) from Neurotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held company that has been quietly advancing its encapsulated cell therapy platform for more than two decades.

CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has obtained clearance from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to conduct clinical trials with JMT-108 for advanced malignant tumors.

Jay Bhattacharya will have his work cut out for him if he wins confirmation as the next director of the U.S. NIH. Besides getting NIH committees back on track to evaluate grant applications and calming the fears of researchers and other staff who have seen about 1,200 colleagues cut from their ranks in recent weeks, Bhattacharya will face the task of rebuilding public trust in the NIH itself.

The widespread need for cartilage repair may have bred optimism on the part of Spinalcyte LLC when it filed a related patent in 2014, but the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has affirmed a rejection of the patent due to lack of enablement, an object lesson regarding the need for clarity in patent applications.

The U.S. FDA drafted a guidance for clinical trials for evaluation of optical imaging (OI) agents. The policy may allow clinical studies to evaluate an OI agent by means of an intrasubject study design, which would save time and money for the sponsor.

Bioheng Therapeutics US LLC has obtained IND approval from the FDA for CTD-402, a CD7-targeted universal CAR T-cell therapy, for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma.

Neurenati Therapeutics Inc.’s NEU-001 has been awarded U.S. orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations by the FDA for the treatment of Hirschsprung disease.

Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast Ltd. is preparing to launch its allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapy, Ryoncil, (remestemcel-L), in March in the U.S. and has priced the treatment at roughly $1.55 million for a full course.