The European Union’s efforts to update its regulatory framework for medical devices was heralded as a long-overdue response to the Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) breast implant scandal, but the COVID-19 pandemic added significant drag to the implementation timelines. Those timelines have proven impracticable for other reasons as well and the problem will bleed into the new year and perhaps beyond to the detriment of patients and manufacturers.
Viral specialist Gilead Sciences Inc.’s U.S. FDA clearance for twice-yearly Sunlenca (lenacapavir) in combination with other antiretroviral therapies for HIV-1 infection provides heavily treatment-experienced patients a new option, and gives the company room to flex with new add-ons.
With yet another deadline looming for passage of spending bills for the U.S. federal budget, Congress has drafted an omnibus spending bill that would extend coverage of Medicare telehealth services. The problem with the legislation in the eyes of many stakeholders is that the Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act is not part of the package that must be passed by Dec. 23, an omission that leaves lab-developed tests (LDTs) in a nether world of regulatory ambiguity.
Sciclone Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. has obtained marketing approval in China for Danyelza (naxitamab) for patients with relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma. The drug, in combination with granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, was approved to treat pediatric patients aged 1 and above, as well as adults, who have relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone or bone marrow and have demonstrated a partial or minor response to prior therapy or stable disease.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abiomed, Foundation Medicine, Venus Concept.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Astellas, Entrada, Horizon, Idorsia, Invectys, Iveric, Kira, Maia, Merck & Co., Mitsubishi Tanabe, NS, Seagen, Skye.
The U.S. FDA has had a long-standing guidance dealing with drug manufacturing facilities that delay or deny FDA investigators’ attempts to inspect a manufacturing facility, but that policy was exclusive of device manufacturing facilities up until passage of the FDA Reauthorization Act (FDARA) of 2017. FDARA’s expansion of the policy to include device manufacturing facilities has prompted a rewrite of an existing 2014 guidance.
One of the big regulatory and pandemic stories of 2022 with global impact was the June 17 World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement on a five-year intellectual property (IP) waiver for COVID-19 vaccines and their components.
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