Policy

Sarepta Therapeutics faces serious FDA action after news broke of a third patient death, the FDA gets a new top drug regulator in George Tidmarsh, a handful of new drugs get turned away from the market and pharma companies continue to commit billions to reshoring manufacturing.
In advance of CMS’ negotiated price for the blood thinner taking effect next year, partners Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer pitched the direct-to-consumer program as a way to allow uninsured, underinsured and self-pay patients to pay less out of pocket.
In this episode presented by IQVIA, BioSpace’s head of insights Lori Ellis discusses the evolving role of local qualified persons for pharmacovigilance with ⁠Ana Pedro Jesuíno⁠, global head local QPPV network at IQVIA.
In its Q2 earnings call Thursday, Novartis said it is moving quickly to reshore its drug manufacturing operations, but CEO Vas Narasimhan told reporters that for most medicines, it typically takes three to four years to completely relocate production.
Around 3,500 FDA employees received termination emails; FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggests lowering industry user fees and tying review times to drug prices; the regulator opens its trove of complete response letters in the name of transparency; and two companies receive rejections for rare disease therapies.
Despite the FDA commissioner’s promises of partnership and collaboration, personnel changes and continued federal cuts create uncertainty for an industry already struggling with nearly half a decade of investment scarcity.

FDA
A journey through the FDA’s newly released complete response letters gave glimpses into the journeys to market for Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s antibody Kisunla, Sarepta’s DMD gene therapy Vyondys 53 and Gilead’s HIV drug Sunlenca.
Leerink Partners called the announcement a ‘positive’ given the delayed timeframe and the uncertainty that the administration will implement tariffs at all.
H2 2025 catalysts to watch, biopharma implications of President Trump’s tax law, KalVista’s new hereditary angioedema drug that Marty Makary reportedly tried to reject, another lawsuit aimed at Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a plea from patients with ALS for access to BrainStorm’s NurOwn.
Kennedy wants to expand the injury compensation program to include COVID-19 vaccines, while also stretching the “statute of limitations” to more than three years.
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