FDA
Analysts called the approval a much-needed win for Novo Nordisk, but warned that the company could struggle to grow sales once rival drugs come to market.
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Representatives of companies including AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Merck have voiced concerns about the FDA’s approach to pre-approval inspections.
With notable therapies from Biogen, Sarepta and MacroGenics failing to show efficacy in pivotal or confirmatory trials, experts question the use of biomarker evidence for approval while one former regulator insists that a “failed trial is not a failed drug.”
Coming up in the back half of December, the FDA will issue a verdict on Vanda Pharmaceuticals’ gastroparesis drug tradipitant, which it rejected last September, triggering a very public dispute with the company.
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The regulator cited deficiencies at a third-party manufacturing facility. Camurus is seeking approval for its extended-release subcutaneous formulation of octreotide, which would allow more convenient once-monthly dosing for patients with acromegaly.
In a short statement Friday, Lykos Therapeutics expressed optimism about a recent meeting with the regulator to discuss next steps for the embattled program, following the FDA’s rejection in August 2024.
The regulator’s approval on Friday of Vyloy for gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer makes it the first and only claudin 18.2–targeted therapy approved in the U.S. for these indications, according to Astellas.
The regulator has delayed its respective decision dates on whether to grant full approval to Amgen’s Lumakras in metastatic colorectal cancer and Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva for primary biliary cholangitis.
Earlier this month, Kezar Life Sciences announced that the mid-stage test of zetomipzomib in lupus nephritis had been placed on an FDA clinical hold. Now, that program is being terminated.
While the regulator conducts another review into the supply of Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, compounders will be able to continue selling their own remixed versions of the blockbuster drug.
The approval makes Pfizer’s Hympavzi the first once-weekly subcutaneous prophylactic injection for hemophilia B in the U.S., according to the company, which is currently embroiled in a row with activist investor Starboard Value.
The FDA is looking at four events for the remainder of October, one of which is an advisory committee meeting for a dual SGLT inhibitor for use alongside insulin in type 1 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
Since its inception in 1992, the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway has helped shepherd nearly 300 new drugs to the market. However, recent years have seen a number of high-profile market withdrawals and failed confirmatory trials.
Despite substantial variability in the presented data and no well-controlled trial, the FDA advisory committee voted in favor of Stealth BioTherapeutics’ Barth syndrome therapy elamipretide, citing the urgent unmet need.