Biologics innovators typically take a lifecycle approach to developing new indications and formulations of their prescription drugs, especially when biosimilar competition is on the horizon.
Fake versions of Novo Nordisk A/S’ 1-mg Ozempic prefilled pens are sounding alarms in Europe amid an ongoing shortage of the company’s semaglutide products resulting from demand in the weight-management space.
Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies Ltd. has announced U.S. and E.U. orphan drug designations for BGT-NPC, an investigational gene therapy for the treatment of Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC). BGT-NPC is an investigational AAV9 gene therapy designed to provide a potentially curative solution to NPC patients following a one-time injection in the cerebrospinal fluid.
The EMA is standing firm on its refusal to recommend approval of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment Albrioza in Europe after re-examining Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s marketing authorization application and remaining unconvinced that the main study demonstrated the drug effectively slows disease progression.
“We’re going to battle,” PTC Therapeutics Inc. CEO Matthew Klein said, responding to a surprise negative opinion from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on converting the conditional marketing authorization to full status for Translarna (ataluren) in the treatment of nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The opinion applies to the renewal of the existing conditional authorization, too.
Supporting their conclusions with data from the same phase III study, the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted a positive opinion for extending the use of Oncopeptides AB’s Pepaxti (melflufen) to earlier lines of treating relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma even as the FDA dug in its heels about withdrawing the drug from the U.S. market.
Now that the U.S. FDA has nearly 15 years of experience with developing and implementing a biosimilar pathway, it’s time for that regulatory path to catch up with the science, according to experts that have been involved in biosimilar development even before Congress passed the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act that created the framework for the U.S. biosimilar market.
Avencell Therapeutics Inc. has received approval from the EMA for its clinical trial application (CTA) for AVC-201 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other selected hematologic malignancies positive for CD123. A phase I study will be conducted in Germany.
Mirati Therapeutics Inc.’s cancer treatment Krazati (adagrasib) is having a tough time outside the U.S. The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) came out with a negative opinion on an MAA for treating KRAS G12C-mutated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The ruling came with a flurry of positive CHMP opinions for companies, including Abbvie Inc., Beigene Ltd. and the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos., plus a mixed result for Ipsen SA after a stumble earlier this week.
The EMA and the European Center for Disease Control have said COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers should ditch the existing formulations and adapt their products to target the omicron-descendant XBB.1.5, to protect against SARS-CoV-2 in the winter of 2023–2024.
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