An FDA rejection of Galapagos NV's rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug filgotinib, announced Aug. 18, was "disappointing and unexpected," CEO Onno van de Stolpe said, adding that "there is so much more" to his company's story and pipeline. Gilead Sciences Inc., the Belgian company's partner and a substantial backer of both the drug and the pipeline, said it would "evaluate the points raised" by the CRL, but continued to believe in the drug.
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc.’s complete response letter (CRL) for Roctavian (valoctocogene roxaparvovec; Valrox) gene therapy for severe hemophilia A shocked the company, its investors and analysts mere days before its Aug. 21 PDUFA date. Now an approval and launch for what would have been the first approved hemophilia gene therapy is likely pushed back roughly two years.
Life science companies doing business during a pandemic may believe that patients, judges and juries will look kindly on products that don’t perform as promised, but that may be an empty wish.
Following a patient’s death in Poseida Therapeutics Inc.’s phase I trial of P-PSMA-101 in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), the FDA has put the study on clinical hold.
The FDA’s go-ahead for Roche Holding AG’s Enspryng (satralizumab-mwge) in anti-aquaporin-4 antibody-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder had watchers of the space weighing its market odds against two therapies approved earlier: Soliris (eculizumab) from Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the more recently cleared Uplizna (inebilizumab-cdon) from Viela Bio Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md.
Two decades after the federal government jumpstarted U.S. R&D investment in its understanding and control of nanoscale matter, funding for the efforts across the government reached about $1.4 billion in fiscal 2020, part of a total cumulative investment of about $29 billion. Though FDA-budgeted nanotech research has accounted for just a fraction of that, at a modest $133 million since 2009, substantial advances have still been made, according to a presentation on the state of nanotech progress and innovation issued this summer.
More than two weeks ahead of its expected PDUFA date, PTC Therapeutics Inc.’s spinal muscular atrophy (SM) drug, risdiplam, gained FDA approval, making it the first at-home, oral treatment intended for use in adults and children 2 months and older.
Bayer AG’s Lampit (nifurtimox) to treat Chagas disease in pediatric patients, approved by the FDA on Friday, is an oral, antiprotozoal medication for newborns to patients under 18, who weigh at least 2.5 kg and are diagnosed with Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi.
News from Biogen Inc. and partner Eisai Co. Ltd. that U.S. regulators accepted the BLA related to aducanumab for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – and assigned it priority review, no less – set Wall Street abuzz, especially as the companies noted in their press release that the FDA “if possible, plans to act early” on the anti-amyloid beta (a-beta) monoclonal antibody. Regulators’ decision came about 30 days after they took receipt of the submission; they could have waited 60.
About two weeks after European regulators gave their go-ahead for Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin-blmf), the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeting therapy from Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM), the FDA did likewise.
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