Polaris Pharmaceuticals Inc. has submitted the first part of its rolling BLA to the FDA for lead product, ADI-PEG 20, for systemic treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma with non-epithelioid histology in combination with a platinum agent and pemetrexed. The BLA is supported by the pivotal phase III Atomic study in which pegargiminase (pegylated arginine deiminase/ADI-PEG 20) met the primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in overall survival and the secondary endpoint of a significant improvement in progression-free survival in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
The U.S. FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion is calling out Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for making “false or misleading claims and representations about the efficacy of Rexulti” in a television advertisement.
The U.S. and China biotech Apollomics Inc. on Nov. 16 gained the NMPA’s conditional approval for its cellular mesenchymal-epithelial transcription inhibitor for lung cancer called vebreltinib (APL-1010) through its Beijing-based partner, Avistone Biotechnology Co. Ltd.
With the U.S. FDA giving the green light to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Adzynma for treating a rare blood clotting disorder caused by a deficiency in the ADAMTS13 enzyme, the company has won two approvals in two days after the FDA approved fruquintinib a day earlier.
The America Invents Act of 2011 was designed to provide a durable overhaul of the U.S. patent system, but the inter partes review process has drawn fire from inventors as a patent-killing machine.
The U.S. FDA approved Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Fruzaqla (fruquintinib) nearly 20 days ahead of its Nov. 30 PDUFA date for adults with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer. “Fruzaqla is the first targeted therapy approved in the U.S. for mCRC regardless of biomarker status or prior types of therapies in more than a decade,” Stefanie Granado, head of Takeda’s U.S. Oncology business unit, told BioWorld.
Multinational pharma companies like Moderna Inc. and Sanofi SA are setting up mRNA R&D centers in Australia and are banking on the country’s decades of mRNA expertise to bring new therapeutics to the clinic and to serve as regional hubs in Asia Pacific, speakers said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held Nov 1-3 in Brisbane, Australia.
Patients living with aggressive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) now have a new treatment option with the U.S. FDA approval of Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd./Coherus Biosciences Inc.’s PD-1 inhibitor antibody Loqtorzi (toripalimab), which will likely become the new standard of care for NPC.
Singapore’s Health Science Authority is rolling out new drug substance evidence requirements following consultations with stakeholders, and drugmakers will have one year to comply with the new regulations.
Biologics innovators typically take a lifecycle approach to developing new indications and formulations of their prescription drugs, especially when biosimilar competition is on the horizon.