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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Gilead underscored its faith in the combo therapy and pledged to work with regulators to resolve the hold, which has paused five clinical trials. Gilead also stressed that the hold does not impact any other assets in its HIV pipeline.
Merck’s Enflonsia will go up against Sanofi and AstraZeneca’s Beyfortus, which the partners plan to ship out early in the third quarter.
The reinstatement of the generic drug policy office is the latest reversal of course for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS, which also recently rehired FDA staff responsible for making travel arrangements and those involved in user fee program negotiations.
Vaccine skepticism is at an all-time high in the U.S., and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making some drastic moves in the name of reversing that trend. But misinformation and inconsistencies within the country’s healthcare agencies highlight problems with his approach.
In a roundtable event on Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his office will work to eliminate barriers that keep cell and gene therapies from the market.
Analysts reacted positively to the news that uniQure is in alignment with the FDA on an accelerated approval pathway and on target for a Q1 2026 submission for its one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease—but patients have been here before.
The Platform Technology Designation, which predates the current FDA leadership, is designed to streamline the drug development and review process, particularly for rare diseases.
The FDA plans to “rapidly make available” rare disease drugs and make use of surrogate endpoints to get promising medicines to patients before they clear the traditional efficacy bar for authorization, Prasad said Tuesday.
Jefferies analysts said the approval was largely expected and an “incremental positive” for Moderna amid questions about the FDA’s attitude toward mRNA and COVID-19 vaccines that have investors worried.
The overturning of the FDA’s lab-developed tests rule is just the tip of the iceberg. With the loss of Chevron deference, power has shifted from federal agencies to the courts, with potential implications for everything from the FDA shortage list to CMS drug price negotiations.