By Tristan Manalac Pictured: BioMarin headquarters/iStock, Michael Vi The FDA has approved BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s valoctocogene roxaparvovec-rvox, to be marketed as Roctavian in the U.S., for the treatment of adult patients with severe hemophilia A, the company announced Thursday. Roctavian, a one-time single-dose infusion, is authorized for use only in adults without antibodies against the adeno-associated virus serotype 5 (AAV5), as determined by an FDA-approved test. It is also the first gene therapy approved for hemophilia A, according to BioMarin’s news release. In an investor call Thursday afternoon, BioMarin Chief Commercial Officer Jeff Ajer said that “the product profile of Roctavian presents tremendous value to patients, including bleed control, good safety profile and freedom from the burden of chronic therapy.” Roctavian is “priced at a wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC, that equates to $2.9 million for the typical patient for this one-time, single-dose treatment,” Ajer said. Hemophilia A is an inherited ...
The first drug fully generated by artificial intelligence entered clinical trials with human patients this week. Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based biotech startup with more than $400 million in funding, created the drug, INS018_055, as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs. The condition, which has increased in prevalence in recent decades, currently affects about 100,000 people in the U.S. and can lead to death within two to five years if untreated, according to the National Institutes of Health. “It is the first fully generative AI drug to reach human clinical trials, and specifically Phase II trials with patients,” Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, told CNBC. “While there are other AI-designed drugs in trials, ours is the first drug with both a novel AI-discovered target and a novel AI-generated design.” The discovery process for the new drug began in ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved CellTrans’ Lantidra (donislecel) as the first cellular therapy to treat patients with type 1 diabetes. The authorisation specifically applies to adults who are unable to meet their target blood glucose levels because they have repeated episodes of severe low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia), despite intensive disease management and education. Almost 1.9 million people in the US have type 1 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. The condition requires lifelong care, including the regular administration of insulin, either through multiple daily injections or continuous infusion using a pump. However, some patients have trouble managing the amount of insulin needed every day, and dosing becomes difficult. These patients may also develop hypoglycaemia unawareness, where they are unable to detect that their blood glucose is dropping and may not have a chance to treat themselves. Lantidra, which is administered initially as a single infusion, ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that Lantidra, a cellular therapy for type 1 diabetes (T1D), has become the first treatment of its kind to be approved. Lantidra is an allogeneic (donor) pancreatic islet cellular therapy made from deceased donor pancreatic cells. The approval applies to adults with ‘brittle’ T1D – those unable to reach target glycated haemoglobin (average blood glucose levels) due to repeated severe hypoglycaemic episodes, despite intensive diabetes management and education. T1D accounts for roughly 5%-10% of all diabetes cases. Within this population, an even smaller group, approximately three out of every 1,000 people with T1D, suffer from ‘brittle’ disease. The therapy works by essentially replacing the body’s insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This is achieved through allogeneic islet beta cells that secrete insulin, administered as a single infusion into the hepatic (liver) portal vein. While this is generally sufficient, an additional infusion ...
While Dupixent often steals the show, Sanofi isn’t sleeping on its vaccine franchise. Boasting prophylactic prospects in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), pneumococcal disease and flu—including a clutch of promising mRNA candidates—the French pharma feels confident its shots can deliver billions of dollars by the end of the decade. By 2030, Sanofi figures its immunizations could generate more than €10 billion in annual sales, the company said during a vaccines R&D event Thursday. Much of that momentum hinges on Sanofi’s pipeline, where the company is targeting an “accelerated pace of innovation” in a bid to launch at least five innovative phase 3 vaccine programs by 2025. “When developing new vaccines, our scientists can now choose from nine distinct platforms—probably the largest number in the industry,” Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi’s executive vice president of vaccines, said of the company’s future immunization prospects. And despite big things on the horizon—principally in the form of ...
A new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease agitation episodes might be on the horizon, but a principal trial investigator skirting protocol could muddy the waters. As BioXCel unveiled its phase 3 data for its orally dissolving dexmedetomidine (originally Pfizer’s Precedex) formulation in Alzheimer’s-related agitation, the company also disclosed some serious trial missteps in an Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. After the FDA in December inspected a trial site that enrolled about 40% of study participants, the agency found three big red flags relating to adherence of the trial’s framework, the filing says. For one, the investigator failed to follow the informed consent plan for four trial subjects, chief medical officer Robert Risinger, M.D., told investors on a conference call. In “certain instances” the investigative plan wasn’t followed and sufficient case histories weren’t maintained for some patients. For example, the site reported a serious adverse event for one patient outside of ...
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome have joined forces to fund the late-stage development of what could be the first tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in over a century. TB is a bacterial infection spread by inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. Despite being both curable and preventable, the disease continues to affect around ten million people every year, and 1.6 million people died from it in 2021, almost entirely in low and middle-income countries. The only TB vaccine in use today, bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), was first used in 1921. It helps protect babies and young children against severe systemic forms of TB, but offers limited protection against pulmonary TB – a form of active TB – among adolescents and adults. The Gates Foundation and Wellcome will invest around $550m to support the phase 3 trial of the M72/AS01E (M72) vaccine, which will be ...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended that adults ages 60 and above receive a single dose of RSV vaccines from Pfizer and GSK after consulting their doctors. Outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the recommendation, which an advisory panel of outside experts made last week. That endorsement says seniors should work with their health-care providers to decide if taking a shot is right for them. The CDC said the shots are expected to be available to the public this fall, when respiratory syncytial virus – along with Covid and the flu – typically begins to spread at higher levels. “These vaccines provide an opportunity to help protect older adults against severe RSV illness at a time when multiple respiratory infections are likely to circulate,” the CDC said in a statement. The virus is a common respiratory infection that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but ...
AstraZeneca has announced impressive results for its STRIDE regimen, delivering significantly improved outcomes for advanced liver cancer patients. The treatment regimen was evaluated in the ongoing HIMALAYA Phase III study (NCT03298451), conducted with 1324 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Participants were randomised to receive either STRIDE or sorafenib, one of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors that comprise the current standard of care for various liver, kidney, and thyroid cancers. After four years of follow-ups, AstraZeneca announced that STRIDE reduced the risk of death by 22% compared to sorafenib, with 25.2% of patients alive at the four-year mark compared to 15.1% with sorafenib. While a one-in-four survival rate may not be comparable, advanced-stage HCC carries a poor prognosis. Five-year survival rates for the condition are only 7%, one of the lowest across all oncology, so even minor improvements in overall survival can make a major difference. Despite this improvement, adverse events recorded during ...
Dive Brief The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking for public input on the transition to at-home care and how it can support enabling technologies. As part of its push to advance health equity, the FDA has posed a series of home-care questions to the medtech industry, including a query about how it can support the development of devices for use in non-clinical care settings. Other questions cover how digital health technologies can support home-based healthcare, the device design attributes that facilitate use outside of clinical settings and methods for generating data to inform regulatory reviews. Dive Insight The development of remote patient-monitoring devices and other connected medical technologies has made it possible to treat more patients at home. In theory, home care can help reduce costs and risks associated with spending time in healthcare facilities and lessen burdens on patients. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated uptake and validation of ...
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