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.
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Draft guidance, issued by the FDA last week, could remove ambiguity and uncertainty that may have so far limited uptake of new approach methodologies, experts told BioSpace,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.
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U.S. President Donald Trump signed a spending package into law Tuesday that reauthorizes the FDA’s previously stalled rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program, among other initiatives, while ending a three-day partial government shutdown.
The program will allow for frequent communication with the FDA, giving manufacturers timely input and guidance regarding the design of their facilities.
Corcept’s relacorilant was rejected for hypercortisolism late last year—a decision which CEO Joseph Belanoff expressed surprise with at the time.
In what is shaping up to be a back-loaded month, the FDA is set to release a slew of regulatory decisions in February, including two that would expand the labels of blockbuster drugs.
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.
New draft guidance from the FDA on multiple myeloma endpoints reflects the new technology available to assess disease and how patient journeys have changed with better treatments.
The FDA is currently reviewing Summit’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific as part of a chemotherapy combo for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
After years of contraction, investors see biotech reentering a growth cycle driven by scientific progress, asset quality and renewed conviction in oncology, obesity and neuroscience innovation.
The discovery of a tumor in a patient who received REGENXBIO’s gene therapy for Hurler syndrome prompted the FDA to place a hold on that program along with the company’s Hunter syndrome program, which is awaiting an FDA decision on or before Feb. 8.
Darzalex Faspro, in combination with an anti-cancer triplet, is the first anti-CD38-based regimen for newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma, regardless of eligibility for stem cell transplantation.