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FDA
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary intends to resign on Tuesday, according to several sources. This report follows a tumultuous 13-month tenure in which Makary oversaw the controversial rejections of several rare disease drugs and “predictable volatility” within the agency.
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New guidelines from two leading medical associations suggest that efforts to reduce bad cholesterol should focus on maintaining low levels of two key lipoproteins. Big pharma is all in, looking to improve on the standard statins to help vanquish America’s number one killer: heart disease.
The FDA’s decision last year to make complete response letters public provides new insight into why therapies sometimes fail to get the regulatory greenlight. Analysts say the information could help sponsors refine their regulatory strategies.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
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FDA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
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A third-party audit found no integrity and reliability problems with data from BioXcel Therapeutics’ Phase III trial. The company intends to file a supplemental New Drug Application for its candidate BXCL501.
Subcutaneous injections of Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi led to numerically greater amyloid removal than the intravenous version of the Alzheimer’s disease therapy, though risks of brain swelling and bleeding remained.
Following the regulator’s denial of patisiran’s label expansion, Alnylam has published late-stage data for the RNAi therapeutic in The New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating its efficacy in ATTR-cardiomyopathy.
With the potential FDA approval of an MDMA-based therapy for PTSD on the horizon, biopharma stakeholders are eyeing psychedelics with fresh anticipation.
High multiplexed patient-centric assays could reduce patient burden
Protocol design optimization and timely engagement of regulators are the crux of optimized, patient-centric clinical trials.
In a cooling job market, companies often can’t match job seekers’ expectations on factors such as salary and remote work.
New platforms are emerging to help biopharma companies fill their human studies more efficiently, but barriers remain to their successful implementation.
While the trial was designed to test safety and not efficacy, patients treated with Araclon Biotech’s experimental ABvac40 vaccine saw a 38% drop in disease progression compared to placebo.
The company’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine Arexvy can elicit similar levels of immune protection in adults aged 50 to 59 as in its approved population, finds results from a late-stage study.