The U.S. FDA has issued a final guidance for non-clinical performance testing for tissue containment bags used during power morcellation procedures, and the FDA had recommended in 2020 containment bags always be used during morcellation procedures. Despite the FDA’s advisory, a survey of surgeons published last year suggested that most of these procedures are not done with these containment systems, possibly because the rate of procedure-related complications is considerably higher when containment is used.
With rising rates of disease and established guidelines for treatment, officials at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. have “the wind at our backs” as they go about commercializing Inpefa (sotagliflozin) for heart failure (HF), after the drug was cleared late May 26 by the U.S. FDA, said CEO Lonnel Coats. Shares of The Woodlands, Texas-based Lexicon (NASDAQ:LXRX), which had risen significantly after hours on word of the Inpefa go-ahead, closed May 30 at $2.90, down 28 cents. Regulators gave their nod to the inhibitor of renal sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) and intestinal SGLT1 with a broad label across the full range of left ventricular ejection fraction, including HFpEF and HFrEF, and for patients with or without diabetes.
U.S. FDA approvals had a modest increase during the first four months of 2023 compared to last year, but still fall short of the peaks seen in 2019 and 2021.
Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) became the first oral antiviral to win full U.S. FDA approval for treating COVID-19, cleared for use in adults who are at high risk for progression to severe disease, including hospitalization or death. The nod follows two months after the agency’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 16-1 in favor of Paxlovid’s overall benefit-risk assessment.
Sequana Medical NV is considering listing in the U.S. as it builds towards the commercialization of its Alfapump, CEO Ian Crosbie told BioWorld in an interview. The company has received a U.S. FDA breakthrough device designation for Alfapump, which treats recurrent or refractory ascites due to liver cirrhosis, and it completed a pivotal study in 2022. The company intends to file the data with the FDA by the end of this year, with the hope of getting premarket approval before the end of 2024.
A week ahead of its May 29 PDUFA date, the U.S. FDA has approved Xacduro (sulbactam for injection; durlobactam for injection) for treating one of the toughest and most deadly infections, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, in adults.
Antengene Corp. Ltd.'s Claudin 18.2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ATG-022 has been granted two orphan drug designations consecutively by the FDA for the treatment of gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Blueprint Medicines Corp. scored a broader label from the U.S. FDA for Ayvakit (avapritinib), which became the first approved therapy to treat adults with indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM).
As the clock ticks toward the “full,” or traditional, approval date for Biogen Inc./Eisai Co. Inc.’s Alzheimer’s drug, Leqembi (lecanemab), the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is facing increasing pressure to get the structures in place to ensure Medicare beneficiaries have access to the drug when the approval comes.
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