The long-term use of ventricular assist devices is becoming a problem for at least some of these devices, as demonstrated by the recall of the Heartmate II and Heartmate 3 devices by Abbott Laboratories’ Abbott Vascular division due to obstruction of the outflow graft used to attach the device to the human heart.
The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to the active ingredient in Soligenix Inc.’s Marvax, a heat stable subunit protein vaccine of recombinantly expressed Marburg marburgvirus (MARV) glycoprotein, for the prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis against MARV infection.
To take clinical trial innovation to the next level, the U.S. FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is opening the CDER Center for Clinical Trial Innovation. The center, known as C3TI, “will be a central hub within CDER to support the implementation of innovative approaches to clinical trial design and conduct,” said Kevin Bugin, CDER’s lead for C3TI and deputy director of operations in the Office of New Drugs.
Preclinical data of rabbits having convulsions has prompted the U.S. FDA to place a clinical hold on Neumora Therapeutics Inc.’s phase I study of NMRA-266 in healthy adults. Neumora said about 30 participants had been dosed so far in the single ascending and multiple ascending dose study, with no evidence of convulsions seen.
By a unanimous 12-0 vote, the U.S. FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee concluded that new evidence support the use of minimal residual disease (MRD) as an accelerated approval endpoint in multiple myeloma (MM) clinical trials. The FDA will now consider the recommendation, which, if incorporated into future studies, could dramatically shorten some drug developer timelines and offer more options for treating the aggressive bone marrow cancer.
Prenosis Inc. gained U.S. FDA de novo marketing authorization for an artificial intelligence-powered rapid diagnostic tool for sepsis, one of the most challenging and deadly conditions in hospitals and reported a distribution agreement with Roche Holding AG. Another pairing also made progress in developing a sepsis in vitro diagnostic this week, as Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH and Randox Laboratories Inc. joined forces and committed €150 million (US$159.63 million) to the effort.
BLR Bio LLC announced that the U.S. FDA has granted orphan drug designation to BLR-200, the company’s investigational therapy for the treatment of systemic sclerosis (SSc).
Lamassu Biotech Inc. has announced that its IND for SA53-OS has been cleared by the FDA in the U.S. The planned phase I/IIa trials will investigate the genetically targeted therapy that blocks the MDM2 protein, a key regulator of the tumor suppressor p53 gene.
The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to the active ingredient in Soligenix Inc.’s Suvax, a subunit protein vaccine of recombinantly expressed Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV) glycoprotein, for the prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis against SUDV infection. SUDV is a type of ebolavirus for which there is no current treatment or vaccine.
The U.S. FDA has cleared Tr1x Inc.’s IND application for TRX-103 for the prevention of graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) in patients undergoing HLA-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).