The U.S. FDA has cleared Memed Diagnostics Ltd.'s blood test for distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections. The diagnostic test has been tipped as an essential step in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. While most infectious disease tests look for the pathogen, Memed BV is an advanced host immune response test that measures the levels of immune system proteins and applies proprietary algorithms to generate an immune signature.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Co-Diagnostics, Cosara Diagnostics.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: AB Science, Abbvie, Abcellera, Alvotech, Aveo, Beigene, Biogen, Biomea, Biontech, BMS, Deciphera, Galapagos, Henlius, Innocare, Janssen, Keymed, Merck, Moderna, Pfizer, Protagonist, Roche.
Biogen Inc. and Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. gained FDA clearance for Byooviz (ranibizumab-nuna), a biosimilar that references the VEGF therapy Lucentis (ranibizumab) from Roche Holding AG, as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration, macular edema following retinal vein occlusion and myopic choroidal neovascularization. Byooviz is the first ophthalmology biosimilar to win the go-ahead in the U.S., and was approved in the EU on Aug. 18, 2021, followed by the U.K. on Aug. 31, 2021.
The FDA reported the elevation of its information technology (IT) office to an agency-level office, a move that gives the agency a heightened priority for eliminating some of the balkanization of computer systems.
Shares of Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) fell 62% to $17.53 on Sept. 17 after it reported finding malignant skin tumors in a mouse model test of its most advanced candidate, rusfertide for blood disorders. After the company notified the FDA, the regulator put the program on a clinical hold, leading dosing of patients in all ongoing trials of rusfertide to be halted for now. The development could impact Protagonist's ability to start phase III testing of the candidate in polycythemia vera (PV) early in 2022, as well as efforts to expand its development to a third indication beyond PV and hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) by the end of this year, as it has planned.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee rejected an sBLA for a third, booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty from Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE for ages 16 and over, then unanimously approved a recommendation for those ages 65 and older along with individuals at high risk of severe COVID-19 to get the booster.
European regulators have rejected Pfizer Inc.’s tanezumab, casting further doubts on whether the FDA will okay the troubled drug that is intended as a non-opioid alternative for osteoarthritis pain.
Nearly 18% of clinical data reported in August were focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, representing the highest percentage for any single month this year. During the month, as the Delta variant took hold throughout the U.S., news of COVID-19 efforts spiked, doubling the amounts seen in both June and July, in which about 9% of the news was pandemic-related, and up significantly from 10% in May.
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been making headlines recently in the life sciences, but these entities practice a business model that leaves some observers uneasy. Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), told a Senate committee recently that the risks to investors in SPACs has prompted him to ask his staff to come up with some proposals to increase transparency to investors, potentially leading to additional compliance costs for these entities.
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