The PDUFA commitment letter negotiated between industry and the U.S FDA every five years provides an inside look at the future of drug development. The PDUFA VII letter, which is to be presented to Congress by Jan. 15, is no exception.
Now that Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE has submitted initial phase II/III study data to the FDA bolstering the case for an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5 through 11 years, the competition, including Moderna Inc., Novavax Inc. and Sanofi SA, falls further behind.
Just months after the controversial FDA approval of Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm (aducanumab), partners on that medicine, Eisai Co. Ltd. and Biogen Inc., are advancing a BLA for another possible AD therapy, lecanemab. Formerly known as BAN-2401, the Bioarctic AB-originated antibody is designed to neutralize and eliminate soluble, toxic amyloid beta for the treatment of early AD. The rolling submission, in pursuit of an accelerated approval, was primarily based on data from a phase IIb trial in people with early AD and confirmed amyloid pathology.
Astellas Pharma Inc. and Seagen Inc. received approval through a priority review from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for Padcev (enfortumab vedotin) to treat radically unresectable urothelial carcinoma that has progressed after chemotherapy. The green light for the antibody-drug conjugate is based on the global phase III EV-301 clinical trial, which included sites in Japan.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Amgen, Astellas, Atara, BMS, Eisai, Genetx, Immunoforge, JW, Kintor, Lipidor, Moderna, Opko, Takeda, Transcenta, Ultragenyx, Vifor.
The FDA posted an advisory for health care professionals regarding a “potential for differences” between men and women in connection with the use of left atrial appendage (LAA) closure devices. The agency said that differences in procedural outcomes as described in a new medical journal article included a procedure-associated death rate of 0.3% among women undergoing the procedure, triple the rate of 0.1% in men.
The issue of FDA regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) has been percolating for a number of years, but the Verifying Leading-edge IVCT development (VALID) Act of 2021 appears to offer the solution. Several stakeholders, including Jeff Allen, president and CEO of Friends of Cancer Research, are eager to see the reforms come through quickly, given the increasingly vital role that tests such as companion diagnostics play in the care of patients facing potentially deadly diseases.
Biopharma companies that have agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice millions of dollars to resolve allegations that they illegally used charities to cover patients’ Medicare copays for brand drugs are finding those settlements may be just the beginning of their legal woes, even when the companies admit no liability in the settlement.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Zebra Medical.
While much of the global pandemic response has focused on vaccines, the World Health Organization is now calling on drug manufacturers to ramp up their supply and donations of monoclonal antibodies used to treat COVID-19 infections.
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