The FDA has awarded orphan drug designation to Omega Therapeutics Inc.'s OTX-2002, a first-in-class epigenomic controller engineered to downregulate c-Myc (MYC), for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Eccogene (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. has received FDA clearance to begin a phase I study of its glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist ECC-5004 for type 2 diabetes.
Turnstone Biologics Corp. has received IND clearance from the FDA for the company's lead selected tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy program, TIDAL-01.
Despite a busy September, U.S. FDA approvals and global regulatory news fell in October to the lowest point this year. So far in 2022, the FDA has approved 127 drugs and biologics, including supplemental filings. This is 25% less than each of the last two years, which had 170 approvals in 2021 and 169 approvals in 2020 through the end of October. The last time approvals were lower than this year was 2016 when there were 121.
Reflecting statutory and regulatory requirements added over the past five years, the U.S. FDA is issuing a revised draft question-and-answer (Q&A) guidance on expanded access to investigational drugs. One of several guidances recently issued, the 40-page draft incorporates requirements from the 21st Century Cures Act and the 2017 FDA Reauthorization Act that took effect after the current final Q&A guidance was updated in 2017. It also answers new questions sponsors have raised over the past few years.
The U.S. FDA announced that it has cleared a new set of tubes used in hemodialysis machines made by Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co., of Bad Homburg, Germany, that are expected to overcome concerns about the previous tubes’ release of potentially toxic biphenyls. The agency acknowledged that it has no reports of adverse events related to the use of these chemicals in the silicone used to manufacture the tubes, stating that its action on this issue is driven solely by animal studies in the medical literature, none of which were cited in the FDA’s Oct. 28 announcement.