China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) awarded Akeso Inc. breakthrough therapy designation for its PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor/VEGF bispecific antibody, ivonescimab (AK-112), combined with docetaxel for locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients who failed to respond to prior PD-(L)1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Akeso, Alvotech, Ascendis, Astrazeneca, Avstera, Eagle, Ensysce, Gmax, Immune Bio, Merck & Co., Nuance, Oncopeptides, Protalix, UCB.
Ardelyx Inc. could have a rocky row to hoe when it makes its case for tenapanor, as a hyperphosphatemia therapy in adults with chronic kidney disease, before the U.S. FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee Nov. 16. The big question facing the adcom is whether the change in baseline serum phosphorous levels achieved by the drug is clinically meaningful. Clearly, FDA reviewers don’t think so, as that question already has resulted in delayed PDUFA dates, a complete response letter and two formal dispute resolution requests.
GSK plc said it will restrict the second-line maintenance indication for ovarian cancer drug Zejula (niraparib) to only patients with deleterious or suspected germline BRCA mutations, at the request of the FDA, in a sign that U.S. regulators aren’t going to relax scrutiny on PARP inhibitors any time soon.
With labeling discussions begun for TG Therapeutics Inc.’s ublituximab to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis, Wall Street was optimistic about the PDUFA date of Dec. 28 assigned to the glycoengineered CD20 monoclonal antibody. Shares of New York-based TG (NASDAQ:TGTX) closed Nov. 11 at $9.34, up 91 cents, or 10.8%, having risen more than 52% over the previous five days. With late-cycle review talks with the U.S. FDA done, ublituximab seemed well on its way.
Acting on its new promise to restore “rigorous enforcement” of the U.S. ban on unfair methods of competition, the FTC filed an amicus brief Nov. 10 supporting Avadel CNS Pharmaceuticals LLC’s motion to delist a Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. patent from the FDA’s Orange Book.
Viatris Inc.’s chief information officer, Ramkumar Rayapureddy, is facing an SEC insider trading complaint, along with criminal charges brought by the fraud division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Another man, Brian Wong, was charged with illegal trading ahead of Merck & Co. Inc.’s acquisition of Pandion Therapeutics Inc.
In addition to the Medicare inflation rebate and the other pricing reforms of the Inflation Reduction Act, manufacturers of certain Part B drugs will be subject to a refund provision tucked away in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed into U.S. law last year.
The U.S. FDA hit a Phoenix-based Abraxis Biosciences LLC facility with a warning letter citing out-of-control aseptic manufacturing processes for Abraxane (paclitaxel), a key chemotherapy drug. The letter, posted Nov. 8, noted that multiple media fill failures occurred last year during simulated aseptic processing operations on the Abraxane filling line.
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