FDA
With CBER director Vinay Prasad set to depart the agency at the end of the month, a coalition of patient groups and biotech executives penned a letter imploring the Trump administration to “restore regulatory clarity” for rare disease therapies. Experts on a BioSpace panel last week also acknowledged the challenges faced by a more stringent FDA.
FEATURED STORIES
Draft guidance, issued by the FDA last week, could remove ambiguity and uncertainty that may have so far limited uptake of new approach methodologies, experts told BioSpace, particularly emphasizing the agency’s recommendations around defining NAMs’ regulatory purpose.
The FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program, unveiled in June 2025, is “shrouded in secrecy,” Democratic representative Jake Auchincloss said last month, as regulatory and biopharma leaders try to decode the criteria for investigational or approved drugs to receive a voucher.
Although FDA Commissioner Marty Makary promised “an exciting treatment” for autism, what the agency delivered was a label expansion for leucovorin to treat the ultrarare cerebral folate deficiency. The regulatory process, which relied on a literature review rather than new evidence, stands in contrast to recent rare disease rejections in which the FDA cited a need for more rigorous evidence.
Subscribe to ClinicaSpace
Clinical trial results, research news, the latest in cancer and cell and gene therapy, in your inbox every Monday
THE LATEST
Elecsys’ approval could help boost the uptake of currently approved Alzheimer’s disease therapies, including Biogen’s Eisai-partnered Leqembi, with CEO Chris Viehbacher recently noting that such biomarker-based tests could “remove some of the bottlenecks” in uptake.
While a new facility setup program aimed at encouraging onshoring received a positive reception at a recent meeting, industry representatives said the current rules on existing production plants are the main regulatory issues facing manufacturing teams.
Heading into the final quarter of a year that has seen dramatic upheaval at the FDA—from the exodus of numerous senior leaders to unclear policy changes and a safety saga that engulfed the gene therapy space—drug approvals appear roughly on par with recent years.
New analysis from Jefferies shows that rare disease and cancer drugs granted the status are especially likely to be approved.
In the Phase III FIBRONEER-IPF study, Jascayd demonstrated significant lung capacity improvements over placebo.
Six months after his controversial departure from the top spot at the FDA’s biologics division, Peter Marks has landed at Eli Lilly, joining former colleague Rachael Anatol, who was ousted from the agency not long after Marks.
The hold was placed earlier this year when the FDA asked for more preclinical data, but the agency was slow to respond due to ‘strain’ on its capacity, according to Neurizon.
This latest FDA program aims to provide speedier reviews for generic drugmakers who produce their products in the U.S.
Rocket Pharmaceuticals’ strategic realignment initiative in July pulled funding from fanca-cel, which the biotech was developing for Fanconi anemia.
Following up on previous, dimly received issuances, a new set of ideas published by the FDA to streamline regulatory pathways for cell and gene therapies ‘for small populations’ is receiving a warmer welcome—but experts warn it will take more to turn the tide for the fraught therapeutic space.