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While the FDA did not announce the recipient names of the Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers, the agency’s descriptions of the awarded products match those in development at Compass Pathways, Transcend Therapeutics and Usona Institute.
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The FDA is signaling change, but actual success depends on more than simply bringing in a new leader at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research; it requires accountability, transparency and consistent action.
Approved Thursday via the FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program, Otarmeni is the first gene therapy for hearing loss—and the first treatment to target an underlying cause of the condition.
With a greenlight for ibogaine to enter clinical testing and three unnamed products set to receive Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers this week, it’s full speed ahead for psychedelics. But will sidestepping normal regulatory protocols actually be a net negative for the field?
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Doubling survival in pancreatic cancer, a long-fought rare disease approval, a massive IPO and ambitious biotech entrepreneurs have BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong feeling upbeat about the biotech scene.
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Merck’s Keytruda will soon lose exclusivity, just as weight-loss giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk press in with their blockbuster GLP-1s.
Poplar Therapeutics is seeking a “step change” in the treatment of food allergy and other atopic conditions, with $95 million raised to date, including a $45 million series A extension that closed Tuesday.
OSE Immunotherapeutics has kicked off a strategic realignment initiative that involves deprioritizing the AbbVie-partnered OSE-230 and focusing its resources on the late-stage development of its ulcerative colitis candidate lusvertikimab.
The FDA last October paused Intellia Therapeutics’ late-stage CRISPR studies after detecting life-threatening enzyme elevations in one patient, who died a few days later.
In a complete response letter published by the FDA on Monday, the agency said a resubmission for REGENXBIO’s Hunter syndrome gene therapy should provide evidence of normalized or improved biomarker levels or neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Infrastructure and location have helped make Holly Springs a future hub for obesity drug production, with Amgen and Roche planning to manufacture GLP-1 therapies there to compete in the growing market.
Here’s how drug developers can best approach interactions with the agency following last year’s seismic changes to its leadership, workforce and policies.
FDA
FDA decisions lack majority consensus, experts agree, possibly leading to less nuanced verdicts on new drug applications. This type of “fiat” decision-making, as multiple regulatory experts have called it, is also bleeding into the agency’s policymaking.
Less than a year after cutting roughly 30% of its employees, BioAtla is letting go of an even larger chunk of its workforce as it considers its future, which could include strategic partnerships and selling off assets.
Days after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary appeared to malign uniQure’s AMT-130 in an interview with CNBC, the agency confirmed to the biotech that a sham surgery–controlled study is needed before submitting the gene therapy for approval.