Merit Medical Systems Inc. received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Scout Bx delivery system, which enables the placement during stereotactic and MRI-guided biopsy of a reflector to guide breast surgery. The delivery system works with the company’s Scout reflector, a wire-free radar localization device.
The U.S. FDA has given the green light to a pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair device developed by Misgav, Israel-based Escala Medical Ltd. The mesh-free, non-surgical repair system is designed to anchor sutures to ligaments of the pelvic floor in an incision-free procedure. Escala, which is a portfolio company of Israeli government franchised incubator Trendlines Group Ltd., believes the device will help the 1 in 5 women in the U.S. affected by POP.
Glaxosmithkline plc and Vir Biotechnology Inc.’s sotrovimab has become the latest COVID-19 antibody to be pulled from the market in the U.S., after the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) because of the rise of the omicron BA.2 subvariant.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met April 5 to review the user fee agreements for the drug and device centers, but one member of the committee was quite vocal about the ever-growing volume of user fees. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said the pace with which user fees are increasing suggests that the FDA is growing increasingly independent of Congress.
Even as many in the U.S. are looking for the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra reinforced expectations April 5 that he will continue the emergency declaration into the summer, if not beyond. When asked during a Senate Finance Committee budget hearing if he saw the emergency ending this summer, Becerra declined to give a date, but reiterated his commitment to give stakeholders at least 60 days’ notice.
A patient’s death has prompted the FDA to place a partial clinical hold on Curis Inc.’s phase I/IIa study of emavusertib in leukemia. The patient, who had relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia, experienced several conditions. One of them was rhabdomyolysis, a dose-limiting toxicity of emavusertib. Rhabdomyolysis is a breakdown of muscle fibers in the blood.
With FDA clearance of its Endoscreener that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect polyps during coloscopy procedures, Wision AI Ltd. is expanding its product portfolio to include colorectal histopathology tools.
Opinion on Wall Street said the matter could have gone either way, but in the end Akebia Therapeutics Inc.’s vadadustat, a HIF prolyl-hydroxylase inhibitor for anemia caused by chronic kidney disease (CKD), garnered a complete response letter (CRL) instead of approval from the FDA. The news slammed Akebia shares (NASDAQ:AKBA), which closed at 82 cents, down $1.61, or 66%. Specifically, the agency said that the data in the NDA do not support a favorable benefit-risk assessment of vadadustat in dialysis-dependent (DD) and non-DDs patients.
Unless the U.S. FDA once again overrides its Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee, it looks like the ALS community will have a longer wait for an additional tool against the fatal, degenerative disease. After hearing from both Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and FDA reviewers, along with 26 people testifying during the open public hearing, the committee voted March 30 against approval of AMX-0035, a fixed-dose combination of sodium phenylbutyrate and taurursodiol, as a much-needed treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The ongoing tension between manufacturers of imaging systems and entities that perform extensive servicing activities has prompted activity on Capitol Hill in the form of H.R. 7253, the Clarifying Remanufacturing to Protect Patient Safety Act.
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