FDA
The FDA issued a rare Refusal-to-File letter to Moderna over its mRNA-based influenza vaccine application, in an unusual move that sent the biotech’s shares tumbling.
FEATURED STORIES
The Senate failed to pass a massive spending bill on Thursday—which includes the rare pediatric PRV program but also funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s large-scale crackdown in Minnesota and other states.
Some 200 rare disease therapies are at risk of losing eligibility for a pediatric priority review voucher, a recent analysis by the Rare Disease Company Coalition shows. That could mean $4 billion in missed revenue for already cash-strapped biotechs.
Together with robust data-driven modeling, rethinking regulation and data use could push forward a notoriously challenging field.
Subscribe to ClinicaSpace
Clinical trial results, research news, the latest in cancer and cell and gene therapy, in your inbox every Monday
THE LATEST
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.
With the regulatory approval for advanced breast cancer, Roche’s inavolisib is a potential challenger to Novartis’ PI3K inhibitor Piqray, which last year generated $505 million in revenue.
The FDA’s reviewers pointed out that Stealth’s elamipretide missed its primary efficacy endpoints in the main study used to establish its effectiveness.
The rejection is related to the timing of the FDA’s reinspection of Zealand’s third-party manufacturer, which previously had deficiencies.
The clinical hold doesn’t cover its drug’s Investigational New Drug application for autoimmune hepatitis, for which the Phase IIa PORTOLA trial is ongoing.
Opdivo’s approval for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer comes as the regulator recently raised concerns of overtreatment with this type of therapeutic regimen with platinum-doublet chemotherapy.
One upcoming decision—on a perioperative PD-1 regimen for lung cancer—comes as the FDA considers an overhaul of trial designs in this treatment setting.
Already approved in six indications, Sanofi and Regeneron can now add chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the list for their blockbuster injection.
BMS’ KarXT targets muscarinic receptors and “is at least 2-3 years ahead of the competition” including AbbVie and Neurocrine Biosciences, Truist Securities wrote in a note to investors.
The FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee voted near-unanimously that the benefits of PD-1 inhibitors like Keytruda and Opdivo in PD-L1 low patients do not outweigh the risks.