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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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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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The rehired staff, who number around 460, work with the CDC’s viral disease prevention efforts and sexual health testing labs, among others. The reinstatements are a ray of light in an acrimonious week that also saw protests and the complete overhaul of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee.
The eight new committee members replace the 17 Kennedy removed earlier this week. In “repopulating” the committee, the HHS Secretary fulfilled the fears of some analysts, naming scientists who appear to reflect his anti-vaccine views.
The downsizing comes after a year of workforce cuts and reorganization for Roche’s subsidiary.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CBER Director Vinay Prasad published an article in JAMA on Tuesday outlining the FDA’s priorities, including accelerating cures and the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence.
Instead of homing in on PSMA—currently the most validated target in prostate cancer—BMS and Philochem will instead collaborate on an early-stage molecule that binds to a novel marker called ACP3.
The company’s intein-based technology is initially aimed at Stargardt disease, a type of macular degeneration.
The American Medical Association is also urging an “immediate reversal” of the HHS Secretary’s decision to oust all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory board.
The layoffs will heavily affect Vertex’s operations in Rhode Island, where the biotech will consolidate three facilities into one.
Guggenheim Partners called Insmed’s Phase IIb readout “impressive across the board,” with an efficacy profile that positions TPIP to be best-in-class in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
For $812 million, Novo Nordisk will enlist Deep Apple to discover and develop a non-incretin therapy for obesity, months after the Danish pharma’s amylin efforts underwhelmed investors.