The U.S. FDA’s recent switch toward more routine use of generalist field investigators might be seen in some quarters as an attempt to do more with less, but a session on the topic at the Food and Drug Law Institute’s annual enforcement conference in Washington seems to suggest that this reversal of historic practice presents at least as many problems as solutions for industry.

CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA to conduct clinical trials in the U.S. with SYH-2069 for weight management in individuals with obesity or overweight and at least one weight-related comorbidity.

One of the sessions at this year’s Food and Drug Law Institute’s enforcement conference dealt with the use of AI for FDA compliance activities, but the question of AI legislation also arose. The problem with AI legislation, said Nathan Brown of Akin Gump, is how to manage the details of any legislation, which presents enough drag that federally preemptive legislation stands a faint chance of passage anytime soon.

The U.S. FDA granted accelerated approval for the Biologics License Application for Axogen Inc.'s Avance, an acellular nerve allograft that serves as a scaffold for nerve regrowth, for treatment of patients with sensory, mixed and motor peripheral nerve discontinuities. The company expects Avance to be commercially available in the second quarter of 2026.

Roche AG received regulatory clearance from the U.S. and European authorities for a new diagnostic test that detects Bordetella infections, including whooping cough, as cases surge globally. The point-of-care test, which delivers PCR-accurate results in just 15 minutes, will help health care providers to quickly identify infections and act to prevent severe complications, onward transmission and deaths.

On Dec. 2, 2025, the FDA released draft guidance that could reduce the use of nonhuman primates (NHPs) in preclinical testing of monoclonal antibodies. According to the guidance, which the FDA released for the purpose of soliciting comments, “In general, studies longer than 3 months in nonrodent species (e.g., NHPs, dogs, and mini-pigs) are not warranted to evaluate toxicities … when data from 3-month studies are supplemented with a weight-of-evidence (WoE) risk assessment.”

Vectory Therapeutics BV has obtained IND clearance from the FDA for a phase I/II trial (PIONEER-ALS) of VTX-002, a first-in-class vectorized antibody targeting TDP-43 pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). VTX-002 delivers an engineered antibody designed to selectively target toxic species of TDP-43.

Latus Bio Inc. has reported IND clearance by the FDA for LTS-101, a gene therapy candidate to treat the CNS manifestations of late-infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2 (CLN2) disease. The FDA has also granted orphan drug, rare pediatric disease and fast track designations to LTS-101.