Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Aldeyra, Ascletis, Buchang, Capstone, Caribou, Genentech, Gilead, Kala, Novavax, Remd, Sofie.
The U.K. Bioindustry Association (BIA) is in an eleventh hour fight against changes to R&D tax breaks that it estimates will result in a £400 million to £800 million (US$480 million to $960 million) cut in payments to the sector. The changes will see cash credit claims reduced from 14.5% to 10%, cutting payments from 33 pence per £1 of spend to 18.6 pence per pound of spend from April 2023. Along with other tweaks, this is an effective 50% cut for biopharmas that do not pay any corporation tax because they are loss-making.
As the days have grown darker throughout November, global regulatory activity and U.S. approvals have continued to drop, marking the month as the slowest of 2022. Compared with this time last year, regulatory news is down by 9% and FDA approvals are down by a quarter. On top of that, new molecular entity clearances in the U.S. are at a six-year low.
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. president and CEO Tom Riga said the company would "immediately deprioritize" its poziotinib program after the U.S. FDA issued a complete response letter (CRL) suggesting the company would have to generate new clinical data prior to potential approval.
With only a year to go before 100% compliance with the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act’s serialization provisions will be required from the beginning to the end of the drug supply chain, most biopharma manufacturers are pretty confident they’re ready for the Nov. 27, 2023, deadline. But distributors? Not so much. And they lay the blame at the manufacturers’ feet.
The companion diagnostic (CDx) has been a mainstay of oncology care for several years, but Richard Pazdur, director of the U.S. FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, said recently in a public forum recently that the notion of a single CDx for an investigational drug has not served patients well.
The U.S. FDA gave its go-ahead for Hemgenix (etranacogene dezaparvovec-drlb), Uniqure NV’s one-time gene therapy – the first for the treatment of adults 18 and older living with hemophilia B. Patients have been waiting “maybe beyond two decades” for a new therapy, Uniqure CEO Matthew Kapusta said. Hemgenix emerged from pioneering work by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University College London.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: AB Science, Argenx, Gamida, GSK, Innocare, Intelgenx, Junshi, Marker, Palisade, Regeneron, Revive, Takeda.
After shelving it for the past decade, the EU Parliament this week adopted a directive forcing large publicly listed companies to break the glass ceilings that have allowed a men-only mentality to thrive in corporate boardrooms across much of Europe. The so-called Women on Boards Directive, formally adopted Nov. 22, will require EU-based public companies to have women in at least 40% of their nonexecutive director posts or 33% of all director posts by the end of June 2026. Companies with fewer than 250 employees will be exempt.