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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.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
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.
THE LATEST
Novo Nodrisk’s cannabinoid receptor–targeting obesity pill was picked up in the $1.1 billion acquisition of Inversago Pharmaceuticals last year.
The positive readout in patients with non-relapsing secondary progressive multiple sclerosis comes on the heels of back-to-back failures in which tolebrutinib was unable to improve relapse rates in patients with relapsing MS.
With Thursday’s positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, the matter now heads to the European Commission which will have the final say on whether Wegovy’s label will be updated.
IRA
While unlikely to pass this year, given the Democrats’ control over the White House and Senate, the proposed legislation might be a harbinger of the Republicans’ agenda next year for the Inflation Reduction Act should they win the November elections.
An unusual placebo effect in Aligos Therapeutics’ Phase IIa trial is driving shareholder skepticism for its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis candidate, according to Jefferies analyst Michael Yee.
The drop in interest rate is slightly bigger than anticipated and good news for the biotech industry, but little will change in the near term.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals on Thursday announced that the regulator declined to approve its application, a decision the company says was delayed by more than 185 days and failed to satisfy the requirements of the Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act.
With the FDA’s approval, Fasenra will compete with GSK’s Nucala, which in December 2017 became the first biologic approved for eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis.
If approved, the co-administration of Arexvy and Shingrix could provide a more convenient vaccination regimen for patients and potentially bolster GSK’s faltering sales for both vaccines.
4D Molecular Therapeutics reported its experimental gene therapy demonstrated a nearly 90% reduction in the need for annualized standard-of-care injections in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration.