The U.S. FDA’s final rule for regulation of lab-developed tests was hardly a shock to the world of regulation, but the final rule might provide a shock for sorts for smaller entities in the diagnostics space. Analysts with Leerink Partners said most companies they routinely track are unlikely to be immediately affected by the final rule, but noted that FDA regulation might make it tougher for smaller, new entries to the space to get to market.
Abbott Laboratories received U.S. FDA approval for its Esprit below-the-knee (BTK) everolimus-eluting resorbable scaffold system for use in chronic limb-threatening ischemia well ahead of the expected second half 2024 time frame. Esprit showed clear superiority to angioplasty in the LIFE-BTK trial presented at last year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The U.S. FDA has posted the long-awaited final rule for lab-developed tests, which amends the draft rule in a few key respects, but Reps. Diana DeGette and Larry Buchson, once again voiced their opposition to the rule. DeGette and Bucshon acknowledged that congressional inaction has left the FDA with few choices, but called again for passage of the Verifying Accurate, Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act, which they said is critical because “burdensome regulation of these medical products creates uncertainty in the future of innovation and patient care.”
X4 Pharmaceuticals Inc. is raring to go with marketing after the firm scored U.S. FDA approval of Xolremdi (mavorixafor) capsules for patients 12 years and older with warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections and myelokathexis, or WHIM syndrome, to increase the number of circulating mature neutrophils and lymphocytes.
The FDA has cleared Prime Medicine Inc.’s IND application for PM-359 for the treatment of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), enabling initiation of a phase I/II trial in the U.S.
In March 2024, BioWorld reported on 261 phase I-III clinical trials updates, showing a 10.6% increase from February's count of 236 and up from January’s 252. However, March’s tally is an 18.2% decline from March 2023’s 319 updates. The average monthly count of phase I-III updates in the first three months of 2024 stood at roughly 277, compared to 305 for all of 2023.
Device recalls may seem an ordinary fact of life, given that some are declared for reasons as innocuous as a change of labeling, but the five device recalls announced by the U.S. FDA April 24 and 25 include one product withdrawal. The recall for the Nimbus series of infusion pumps and administration sets by Infutronix LLC cited instances in which patients were subjected to out-of-specification analgesia flow rates, and the company has seen fit to remove the existing inventory from the market.
Pfizer Inc.’s Beqvez (fidanacogene elaparvovec) won FDA approval for use in adults with hemophilia B, making it the second adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector-based gene therapy available for patients in the U.S., following the late 2022 approval of CSL Behring’s Hemgenix (etranacogene dezaparvovec).
The U.S. FDA issued a revised draft guidance, “Promotional labeling and advertising considerations for prescription biological reference and biosimilar products,” to help ensure promotional communications involving reference biologics or their follow-ons are accurate, truthful and not misleading.
The U.S. FDA’s device center launched a new health care program designed to provide patients with a seamless home health care environment that stitches together various health care functions into an integrated system that eases the patient’s use of such technologies. The initiative, part of the agency’s health equity agenda, will rely on augmented and virtual reality and requires the development of a prototype that will be rolled out in underserved areas with several overarching objectives, including the democratization of clinical trial participation.
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