The U.S. FDA's two-day advisory hearing on industrial ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization of medical devices wrapped up with a discussion of how duodenoscopes can be made safer. The conclusion was largely that employee churn, training and work conditions were the biggest challenges – issues over which the FDA has nearly zero leverage.
BEIJING – Chinese biosimilar maker Bio-Thera Solutions Ltd., of Guangzhou, said its BAT-1406 became the first biosimilar referencing Abbvie Inc.'s blockbuster TNF-blocker, Humira (adalimumab), to win a marketing nod in China. It is Bio-Thera's first biosimilar and China's second homegrown biosimilar approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
The first day of the FDA's two-day hearing on ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization of medical devices addressed several alternatives to EtO, but the advisory panel had little advice to offer the agency other than to encourage tweaks to sterilization procedures in order to get past the immediate problem.
The U.S. FDA has approved the Senza Omnia Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) system from Redwood City, Calif.-based Nevro Corp. The system is the first such system that delivers Nevro's high frequency 10,000 Hz stimulation, known as HF10, but also all other therapeutic spinal cord stimulation frequencies.
Singapore-based Vela Diagnostics Holding Pte. Ltd. has received U.S. FDA authorization via the de novo approval pathway for an in vitro diagnostic test to detect HIV-1 genomic drug resistance mutations (DRMs). The Sentosa SQ HIV-1 Genotyping Assay – the first HIV-1 genotyping next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay to win an FDA nod – uses plasma of patients infected with HIV-1 to detect HIV-1 Group M DRMs in the protease, reverse transcriptase and integrase regions of the pol gene in a single test.
BEIJING – Chinese drug regulators granted conditional approval to Shanghai Green Valley (Group) Co. Ltd.'s marine-derived oligosaccharide, GV-971, to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), but required further trials to prove the drug's efficacy after marketing.
HONG KONG – Daewon Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., based in Seoul, South Korea, has received the approval from the country's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to market Terrosa, a biosimilar teriparatide for osteoporosis treatment developed by Richter-Helm Biotec GmbH & Co. KG, of Hamburg, Germany.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided against a series of rate cuts for PET imaging in the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2020, a move lauded by physicians who were facing a rate cut of as much as 80% for nuclear medicine and molecular imaging procedures.
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