FDA
Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
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A recent FDA reversal sparked new hope for patients with Huntington’s disease. Flying under the radar, Skyhawk Therapeutics revealed 12-month functional data from a midstage trial of its own candidate showing improvements on a key disease measurement scale.
The FDA plans to hold an advisory committee meeting to discuss Capricor Therapeutics’ application for deramiocel, which the agency rejected last July. The news surprised CEO Linda Marbán, who told BioSpace the FDA has not communicated any issues of concern with the company’s resubmitted application.
When the variance can’t be modeled, even disciplined biotech investors stop deploying. Here’s the cheapest fix for biotech’s investability problem.
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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.
As with recent rejections for Biogen and Scholar Rock, manufacturing issues stymied a regulatory bid from Fortress Biotech and Sentynl Therapeutics. Fortress said the FDA did not flag problems with the drug’s safety or efficacy.
Due to policies regarding industry user fees, the FDA will not be able to accept any new drug applications for the duration of the government shutdown, according to Leerink Partners.
The first oral BTK blocker for chronic spontaneous urticaria, Rhapsido offers a more convenient treatment option for patients who still show symptoms after antihistamine treatment.
Without naming Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, the CDER director in a now-deleted LinkedIn post claimed that for lupus nephritis, companies have not conducted post-approval studies “to demonstrate a benefit on hard clinical endpoints.”
The FDA in September issued two rejections for spinal muscular atrophy therapies—both linked to manufacturing problems—and granted approvals in Barth syndrome and for a subcutaneous version of Merck’s Keytruda that could be key to the blockbuster’s future earnings.
By publishing complete response letters as soon as they are issued to drug sponsors, the FDA is expanding transparency in a way that, while positioned as a public health measure, also grants investors greater visibility into regulatory decisions. Experts question whether this is the agency’s proper remit.
In one of the first demonstrations of the impact of last year’s Loper Supreme Court decision on challenges to agency authority, a judge ruled that the FDA does not have authority to regulate tests developed by clinical laboratories.
From more than 30 target action dates in the last three months of the year, BioSpace has narrowed the list to six regulatory decisions that could have far-reaching implications for biopharma and patients.