The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have not yet come to terms on FDA user fee legislation, a quinquennial source of melodrama that leaves the agency in an awkward position with current employees. However, FDA principal deputy commissioner Janet Woodcock said recently that prospective employees are also watching how Congress handles its business, adding that some of these pending hires may take jobs elsewhere rather than wait on Congress to send a user fee bill to the White House.
Now that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, nearly two weeks after a similar declaration from the World Health Organization, the way is cleared for a coordinated response and emergency use authorizations to address supply challenges that could limit the availability of currently approved vaccines. It also has several companies ready to leap into the fray if their preclinical studies show a path to approval. HHS said it just shipped more than 602,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine to states and jurisdictions, an increase of 266,000 in the past week.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. got good news when the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review posted a revised evidence report Aug. 4 that assessed the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of the company’s AMX-0035 and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America Inc.’s Radicava (edaravone) in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The FDA’s ability, or lack thereof, to churn out guidances is not always the stuff of industrial outrage, but manufacturers of laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) systems might find the timing of a new draft guidance on the procedure somewhat odd. The draft guidance arrives nearly a decade and a half after an April 2008 advisory hearing.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. said it plans to file a BLA for its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), SRP-9001, with the U.S. FDA, potentially setting up a decision in the first half of 2023 for the therapy developed in partnership with Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech said the BLA will seek accelerated approval for the therapy, also known as delandistrogene moxeparvovec, for ambulant individuals with DMD.
The U.S. FDA gave the greenlight to Acufocus Inc. for its IC-8 Apthera intraocular lens (IOL) for the treatment of cataracts. Like most other IOLs implanted as part of cataract surgery, the small aperture Apthera provides excellent distance vision. It distinguishes itself by also providing clear intermediate and near vision, essentially eliminating the blurring of close objects or words common as people age and develop presbyopia.
It was bound to happen someday. With more and more prescription drugs coming to the U.S. market, the FDA is running out of unique combinations for the 10-digit national drug code given to each product.
The U.S. FDA handed good news to Healthy IO Ltd. (Healthy.io) with 510(k) clearance for its smartphone-based Minuteful Kidney test, making kidney function testing – from sample to result – possible at home. The app calculates the albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), a key indicator of kidney disease. By enabling people to complete the test using their phones, the company says it has increased the rate of testing in high-risk patients by 50%.
The U.S. FDA has granted Alpheus Medical Inc. orphan drug and fast track designations for a therapeutic platform that could improve outcomes for patients suffering from recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary brain cancer and among the hardest to treat.
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