Drug Development
Ahead of the FDA’s June target action date for Sarepta’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy, ICER Chief Medical Officer David Rind blasted the regulator’s accelerated pathway in a JAMA viewpoint article.
FEATURED STORIES
Through substantial leadership turnover and workforce cuts, the FDA has continued to support the advanced therapy sector, actively working to remove obstacles to innovation.
With immunology and inflammation blockbusters like AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq reeling in nearly $7 billion combined in the third quarter, the pipeline-in-a-product strategy has never been more attractive.
The cholesterol-lowering drug is part of a suite of medicines that also includes MariTide and that Amgen Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton hopes will make the company the “undisputed leader in the management of cardiometabolic risk for patients” by 2030.
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The first two weeks of October saw BMS’s $4.8 billion buyout of Mirati, Lilly’s $1.4 billion purchase of Point, Kyowa Kirin’s $387 million acquisition of Orchard and AbbVie’s $110 million Mitokinin deal.
The regulator’s approval of oral, once-daily etrasimod, to be marketed as Velsipity, was based on favorable Phase III safety and efficacy data showing significant clinical remission of ulcerative colitis.
Last year, the FDA declined to approve a drug that appears to reverse a rare and debilitating enzyme deficiency. Some experts say it’s emblematic of a need for more flexibility around therapeutics targeting rare diseases.
The biotech will pause its lirafugratinib program for a rare bile duct cancer to target a larger FGFR2-altered solid tumors population, citing the Inflation Reduction Act as a driving decision factor.
The biopharma’s data manipulation controversy continues with a recently leaked City University of New York report, which found signs of “egregious” and “deliberate” misconduct by a company advisor.
The FDA is gearing up for six decisions in the next two weeks, two of which involve highly anticipated medicines for rare diseases.
Shares of Akero Therapeutics took a hit after the company missed the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb study of efruxifermin in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
More than 54% of patients treated with mirikizumab achieved clinical remission at 52 weeks versus 19.6% of those on placebo. Eli Lilly will submit a marketing application in Crohn’s disease to the FDA in 2024.
In a Phase Ib/II study, Tempest Therapeutics’ investigational PPAR⍺ antagonist—combined with Roche’s Avastin and Tecentriq—showed strong signs of survival benefits in liver cancer patients.
The subcutaneous version of its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug notched a victory in a key late-stage study. Roche will submit the OCARINA II data to global health authorities in the coming months.