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.
As members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team talk about COVID-19 boosters as if they are a fait accompli for Americans even before the FDA completes its evaluation of the data, the controversy continues to roil around the need for another vaccine dose.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has grabbed a slice of the non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) market, becoming the first company to gain FDA approval for an oral drug targeted against a rare form of the disease.
A fourth child has died after developing liver complications on a trial of Astellas Pharma Inc.’s gene therapy for rare neuromuscular disease, after FDA advisers noted the problems on the ASPIRO study in a discussion on gene therapy safety. Last week, Astellas announced that it had stopped dosing on ASPIRO after a safety issue involving liver function emerged in the trial of the gene therapy AT-132, aimed at the life-threatening rare disease X-linked myotubular myopathy.
The Biden administration may have jumped ahead of the FDA review when it announced last month that it planned to roll out COVID-19 boosters by Sept. 20, but that’s not likely to happen when it comes to the timing of vaccines for young children.
The days may be numbered for drug companies telling the FDA one thing to expedite approval and then telling the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) something else to ensure they get a new patent.
Initial efforts at Humanigen Inc. to win an FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients with its monoclonal antibody, lenzilumab, have failed to gain the regulator's buy-in, sending company shares (NASDAQ:HGEN) down 47.3% to $7.97 on Sept. 9 after touching a 52-week low during the session, a reaction part of a volatile arc that has seen shares climb as high as $29.20 during the same time span.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported a rescission of a September 2020 policy that would require that the secretary of health and human Services sign off on any rulemaking by HHS agencies. Despite the firestorm of criticism that followed the issuance of the September 2020 policy, attorney Jim Shehan, of Lowenstein Sandler, told BioWorld that the rulemaking process will remain exceptionally cumbersome, leaving in place a status quo that itself has been the target of repeated criticism.
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