Has COVID-19 revolutionized the future of regulation of medicine development and authorization or are we simply responding to an unprecedented global pandemic? Our Head of Regulatory Affairs and Enhanced Services, Harriet Edwards, delves deep on how the pandemic changed the industry we work in today. COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2, has undoubtedly changed the world as we know it, affecting daily life, health, and economics to an unprecedented degree. Due to the widespread and devastating impact of this previously unknown virus, there has been a massive effort from the pharmaceutical industry to rapidly develop a vaccine to protect the population. As a consequence of the increasingly evolving threat of COVID-19, developers and regulators have had to respond accordingly, learning about the virus while attempting to develop and regulate treatments concurrently. This article aims to examine whether COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has changed the future of regulation through identifying and discussing the notable regulatory milestones ...
Dive Brief The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has written to healthcare providers to emphasize its current indications and instructions for use of NuVasive’s limb-lengthening system. NuVasive paused shipments of its Precice devices for lengthening limbs in 2021 but resumed the sale of some products later that year after showing that its titanium-based devices may be free of the problems associated with stainless steel implants. The FDA said it continues to monitor the safety of the titanium implants and, having expanded the use of the devices to children in a recent 510(k) clearance, is reminding healthcare providers of its position on the products. Dive Insight The FDA in March gave 510(k) clearance to NuVasive to market its Precice Intramedullary Limb Lengthening System for use in the femur and tibia of children aged 12 years and up. Having lowered the minimum age for using the device, the FDA wrote to healthcare ...
Tubulin is a protein that plays a crucial role in the structure and function of cells. It is the main component of microtubules, which are long, hollow fibers that provide structural support, help the cell divide, give it its shape, and act as tracks for moving molecular cargo around inside the cell. There are two types of tubulin: alpha-tubulin and beta-tubulin. Together, they form dimeric (two-part) building blocks, spontaneously assembling into microtubules that undergo further continuous cycles of assembly and disassembly. The tubulin code To fine-tune microtubules, the dimers undergo various post-translational modifications (PTMs), which are chemical modifications that occur after they are synthesized, and can affect their structure, activity, and interactions with other molecules. Two important PTMs take place on the unstructured tail of alpha-tubulin: Polyglutamylation, which adds chains of glutamate amino acids, and detyrosination, which removes the final tyrosine amino acid. These PTMs, among others, are found together ...
Loneliness is a bigger risk factor for heart disease in patients with diabetes than diet, exercise, smoking and depression, according to research published June 29 in the European Heart Journal,. “The quality of social contact appears to be more important for heart health in people with diabetes than the number of engagements,” said study author Professor Lu Qi of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans. “We should not downplay the important of loneliness on physical and emotional health. I would encourage patients with diabetes who feel lonely to join a group or class and try to make friends with people who have shared interests.” “Loneliness and social isolation are common in today’s societies and have become a research focus during the last years, especially driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuous digitalization of society,” state Kahl and colleagues in an accompanying editorial. Loneliness refers ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, fear of missing out (FOMO) on social activities may have negatively affected the mental health of adults at high risk of serious disease, according to a new study from Rice University and Baylor University. “Fear of missing out and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic” was published June 29 in Social and Personality Psychology Compass and is authored by Angie LeRoy, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor; Vincent Lai, a Ph.D. student at Rice; Arya Tsay-Jones, who participated in the research as a Rice undergraduate; and Chris Fagundes , a professor in Rice’s Department of Psychological Sciences. The acronym “FOMO”—short for the “fear of missing out” one might feel about not being able to take part in events or experiences that could make one’s life better—refers to a phenomenon that has become more mainstream in the last decade as social media use has ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a complete response letter (CRL) for Alvotech’s Humira biosimilar AVT02, further delaying the company’s plans to launch the drug in a landmark year. The agency rejected the drug’s biologics licence application (BLA) over deficiencies seen at one of the company’s manufacturing facilities in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to Alvotech’s press release on 28 June. While the FDA did not make a note of any other deficiencies in the BLA, issues related to the Reykjavik facility need to be resolved to facilitate the drug’s potential approval. This marks the second time that the FDA has rejected AVT02’s BLA this year. In April, the regulator issued a CRL to Alvotech, which also noted the deficiencies seen in the company’s Reykjavik plant. Prior to that, the company received a CRL from the FDA over deficiencies in the plant in September 2022. Alvotech plans to resubmit ...
GLORIA trial shows increased survival levels among newly diagnosed brain cancer patients TME Pharma – a company concentrating on the development of therapies for treating cancer – has announced a positive update on the survival of first-line glioblastoma patients taking part in the company’s GLORIA trial. Across the wider GLORIA clinical trial, TME is researching the effectiveness of NOX-A12 among newly-diagnosed brain cancer patients who will not benefit from standard chemotherapy. Meanwhile, the expanded arm of the study is focusing on the candidate – a CXCL12 inhibitor – in combination with standard of care radiotherapy and bevacizumab. Following 15 months of the research, 83% of trial patients (five out of six) were still alive. Furthermore, as long as treatment or follow-ups for these patients continues, median overall survival will improve. The expected median overall survival for patients under existing standard of care, with chemotherapy refractory tumours – and whose tumour ...
Bayer AG and its subsidiary, BlueRock Therapeutics LP, have announced positive topline results from an early-stage study of an experimental Parkinson’s disease stem cell therapy. In the phase 1 study of bemdaneprocel, the treatment was shown to be well-tolerated in all 12 patients involved in the study, and transplanted cells grew as intended in the patients’ brains at one-year post-transplant. The companies said that, based on these positive results, planning is already underway for a phase 2 study that is expected to begin enrolling patients in the first half of 2024. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, a progressive and chronic neurological disorder that affects an estimated ten million people worldwide. The disease is caused by nerve cell damage in the brain, which leads to decreased levels of dopamine. The loss of these dopaminergic neurons results in a progressive decline of motor function and symptoms such as tremors, muscle ...
After an initial rejection in 2020 and a review delay earlier this year, BioMarin’s Roctavian has finally got the FDA go-ahead to introduce a gene therapy for a not-so-rare disorder.The FDA has cleared Roctavian as a one-time therapy for adults with severe hemophilia A, BioMarin said Thursday. The news comes seven months after the FDA greenlighted CSL Behring’s hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix, which bears a list price of $3.5 million and is currently the most expensive drug in the world. BioMarin is pricing Roctavian at a wholesale acquisition cost of $2.9 million, BioMarin’s chief commercial officer Jeff Ajer said during a call Thursday. It’s also setting up an outcomes-based warranty program. The warranty will reimburse government and commercial payers up to the full cost if Roctavian doesn’t live up to its treatment expectations. Partial reimbursement will be granted if an individual loses response to the therapy in the first four ...
By David Adam Pictured: Person holding a cell phone in front of computer with stock data/iStock The release of positive topline results Thursday from the Phase III trial of BioXcel Therapeutics’ Alzheimer’s-related agitation treatment was overshadowed by disclosures to the SEC about fabricated email correspondences pertaining to the study’s safety data. In a Thursday SEC filing, BioXcel said that a trial site’s principal investigator—who enrolled 40% of the study participants at that site—was found to have fabricated email correspondences related to the timing of the filing for a serious adverse event (SAE) with the company’s vendor responsible for the monitoring of drug safety. The adverse event occurred in a subject in the placebo arm, the company said. In May 2023, it “came to the company’s attention that this same principal investigator in the TRANQUILITY II clinical trial may have fabricated email correspondence purporting to demonstrate that the investigator timely submitted ...
Go to Page Go
your submission has already been received.
OK
Please enter a valid Email address!
Submit
The most relevant industry news & insight will be sent to you every two weeks.