Eli Lilly and Co.'s FDA win with Baqsimi (glucagon) nasal powder, the first non-injected therapy to gain clearance for emergency treatment of hypoglycemia, makes the rescue of severely hypoglycemic patients quicker and easier, and coming down the pike are more treatments that could simplify therapy.

Following more than a year of restructuring and recalibration, Regulus Therapeutics Inc. is facing a new partial clinical hold placed by the FDA on its phase I test of RGLS-4326, an oligonucleotide it's developing for the treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). 

After two complete response letters (CRLs), Agile Therapeutics Inc. with its Twirla (levonorgestrel/ethinyl estradiol) contraceptive patch – hounded by FDA concerns regarding manufacture and adhesion properties – might just be on the road to success.

Pharmaceutical and life sciences giant Bayer AG scored another indication for its MRI contrast agent, Gadavist (gadobutrol) injection, this time in adults with suspected coronary artery disease. The FDA nod makes Gadavist the first and only contrast agent approved for use in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging.

Despite a February adcom meeting urging the agency to wait for more data, the FDA has approved Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.'s selinexor, in combination with dexamethasone (dex), as a new treatment for certain adults with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (MM). The approval covers patients who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is resistant to several other forms of treatment, including at least two proteasome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.

The FDA placed a clinical hold Wednesday on a phase I trial by Unum Therapeutics Inc. after a patient experienced serious adverse events that included grade 3 neurotoxicity and cytomegalovirus infection, and grade 4 respiratory distress.

With regulatory science always lagging innovation, ambiguity has long been a certainty at the FDA and is likely to become even more so as the pace of new technologies quickens.

The FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) issued 62% more warning letters under the first part of the Trump administration than it did during the last few years of the Obama administration. But the number of warnings for medical devices, food and tobacco products fell sharply under President Donald Trump, according to an investigative report being published in the July 5 issue of Science.

In the words of former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, the five-week government shutdown that ended Jan. 25 was "the most difficult operational challenge we have faced in modern times." While the full impact of that challenge could ripple through the FDA for a while, it made little difference in the number of warning letters the agency sent out between Dec. 23 and Jan. 25.

Approval of Alexion Pharmaceutical Inc.'s Soliris (eculizumab) injection to treat neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) in adult patients who are anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody positive makes it the first and only FDA-approved treatment. It's also one of the most expensive treatments in the world, making it vulnerable to off-label use and the eventual creep of biosimilars into the market.