A half-day open meeting intended to examine “how the public perceives and values pharmaceutical quality,” convened by the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University in cooperation with the FDA, included a rundown of the agency’s oversight program, results of surveys to measure viewpoints of patients and providers – and tart commentary from a two-member “reactant panel.”
Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. wasted no time moving ahead after last week’s FDA approval of Palforzia for peanut allergy as the Brisbane, Calif.-based company obtained an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize Xencor Inc.’s humanized monoclonal antibody, XmAb-7195, for treating allergic asthma.
The U.S. FDA has given its nod for a new trial of Abbott Laboratories’ Amplatzer Amulet left atrial appendage (LAA) occluder for those with atrial fibrillation (AF) who are at risk of stroke. Known as the CATALYST trial, it is the first study comparing the effectiveness of a LAA closure device to non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) drugs, a newer class of blood thinners, the Abbott Park, Ill.-based company said.
The FDA has issued two new approvals, one for a cell-based pandemic influenza A (H5N1) vaccine and the other is the first approval for treating peanut allergy.
The U.S. FDA’s emphasis on internationalized regulations continues with the agency’s adoption of ISO 14971, the risk management framework published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The FDA said it will accept declarations of conformity to the previous edition until December 2022, giving device makers roughly three years to update their systems.
Diabetes is the first med-tech sphere that is coalescing for Verily Life Sciences LLC, but cardiology could be next. The South San Francisco-based business that’s part of Google parent Alphabet Inc. has received a second FDA clearance for its Verily Study Watch as an irregular pulse monitor. After a 2017 debut, it was first cleared by the agency about a year ago for use to take an on-demand electrocardiogram (ECG).
Biointellisense Inc. received good news from the U.S. FDA, which gave its nod to the company’s Biosticker on-body sensor for scalable remote care. The Biosticker allows for continuous monitoring of vital signs and actionable insights, delivered to clinicians from patients in the home setting. The goal is to help in the early detection of potentially avoidable complications.
With four gene therapies already approved and more than 900 in development, the FDA has finalized six guidances and issued a draft guidance to clarify the rules of the road for developing and manufacturing the treatments.
Tempe, Ariz.-based Gt Medical Technologies Inc. has won the U.S. FDA’s nod for an expanded indication for Gammatile therapy. With this decision, patients with newly diagnosed malignant brain tumors now are eligible to receive the FDA-cleared surgically targeted radiation therapy. Gammatile therapy offers an option vs. waiting several weeks for surgical wound healing before beginning treatment. Previously, the therapy was available for individuals with recurrent brain tumors.
Matthew Ros, chief strategy and business officer for Epizyme Inc., said the company is “not providing specific guidance at the moment” about the sales force that will be deployed to market Tazverik (tazemetostat) in follicular lymphoma (FL), an indication for which U.S. regulators are considering the oral, first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor. “But I can assure you we’ve planned very thoughtfully” about the effort, he said. “That's always been a part of why we thought epithelioid sarcoma [ES] was such a strategically important component of the overall business strategy to get on-the-ground experience.” The sales force numbers 19 for now.
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