A week after ADC Therapeutics paused its Zynlonta trial to review seven deaths and five other respiratory events in patients who received the drug, the company has scrapped the study altogether following an FDA partial clinical hold. The trial was testing the drug, combined with Roche’s Rituxan, in unfit or frail patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Citing the “challenges of defining the addressable segment” of the difficult-to-treat population, ADC believes the benefit-risk profile “does not support” the continuation of the study, the company said in a release. The call came after a meeting with the FDA, in which the agency slapped a partial hold on enrolling new patients in the trial. However, the agency said patients who are already on the drug and seeing clinical benefits can remain enrolled after reconsenting. After those patients are treated, ADC will take steps to wrap up the trial. ...
AstraZeneca and Sanofi’s Beyfortus (nirsevimab) has been approved in the US for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) in newborns and infants born during or entering their first RSV season, the companies announced. The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision makes the long-acting antibody the first preventive option approved to protect a broad infant population, including those born healthy at term, preterm, or with specific health conditions that make them vulnerable to severe RSV disease. The approval, which also applies to children aged up to 24 months who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second RSV season, was based on results from the Beyfortus clinical development programme spanning three pivotal late-stage clinical trials and follows a unanimous vote by the Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee on the favourable benefit-risk profile of the drug. Across all clinical endpoints, a single dose of Beyfortus ...
Gilead Sciences has announced that its COVID-19 treatment, Veklury (remdesivir), has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat patients with severe renal impairment, including those on dialysis. The drug is already approved in the US to treat COVID-19 in adults and paediatric patients who are hospitalised or have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and are at high risk for progression to severe illness. However, its use has previously been limited among patients with severe renal impairment due to insufficient data. The FDA’s latest decision makes Veklury the first and only approved antiviral COVID-19 treatment that can be used across all stages of renal disease. Gilead’s supplemental new drug application was supported by positive results from a phase 1 study as well as data from the phase 3 REDPINE trial that demonstrated the efficacy and safety profile of Veklury among patients with moderately and severely ...
Following a three-month delay to provide more time for review, the FDA is scheduled on July 24 to decide on Daiichi Sankyo’s proposal to administer quizartinib in combination with standard chemotherapy to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The FDA first accepted Daiichi Sankyo’s NDA in October 2022 and granted it Priority Review, which is meant to accelerate the regulator’s decision. However, in April 2023, the FDA pushed the action date back by three months to accommodate updates to the proposed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies for quizartinib. Daiichi Sankyo is backing its NDA with data from the Phase III QuANTUM-First trial, which demonstrated that quizartinib can cut the risk of death by 22.4% in AML patients compared to chemotherapy alone. This advantage persisted until 40 months of follow-up, at which point the quizartinib arm had more than double the median overall survival of placebo comparators. ...
Women of all ages in America will soon have access to a birth control pill that does not require a prescription, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Perrigo’s Opill (norgestrel). The progestin-only pill will be the first contraceptive medication in the US that can be bought from the same aisle as paracetamol or toothpaste. Marketed as Opill, Perrigo gained control of the drug after an acquisition of HRA Pharma in 2022. In a statement, the FDA said that the non-prescription availability of the medicine will help reduce barriers to accessing contraceptives. The once-a-day pill should be available early next year, but its pricing remains to be announced. The approval comes amidst a widening cultural divide regarding women’s health rights. Many US states have introduced laws that ban abortion after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Opill’s availability opens accessibility avenues to women’s ...
BTIG analysts share insights gleaned from tracking medical device clearances, approvals, and FDA review times. COVID-related backlog at FDA had a real impact on medtech approvals there for a while. Now that the pandemic is officially over, are things back to normal for medical device approvals? Medtech analysts at BTIG recently shared some mid-year insights based on multiple years of tracking FDA approval databases. The bottom line: 510(k) clearances are down a bit, PMA approvals are on track to grow substantially, and review times have been mixed depending on the pathway. Through June, there were 1,586 510(k) clearances. At this pace, there would be about 3,075 FDA clearances at the end of the year, representing a 4.4% dip compared to the number of clearances in 2022. The analysts at BTIG noted that it is taking an average of 162.8 days for the agency to render a decision regarding a 510(k) ...
Dive Brief The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Urotronic’s minimally invasive surgical treatment of symptoms linked to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the company announced Tuesday. BPH is defined by the expansion of the prostate. As the organ grows, it can cause changes in the bladder that result in lower urinary tract symptoms such as leaking urine. Urotronic’s newly approved Optilume BPH catheter system is designed to tackle the symptoms through mechanical dilation and the delivery of paclitaxel to stop the problem from recurring. Dive Insight Researchers studied the use of balloon dilation in BPH in the 1990s, but the technique failed to provide long-term benefits. Urotronic has tried to address that problem by pairing the immediate symptomatic relief provided by balloon dilation with localized delivery of paclitaxel, a drug that is already widely used in cardiovascular devices to prevent blood vessels from narrowing after ...
Takeda has voluntarily withdrawn the Biologics License Application for its dengue vaccine candidate TAK-003 following discussions with the FDA regarding additional data collection, the Japanese pharma company announced Tuesday. According to Takeda, it will not be able to address the regulator’s concerns within the current BLA review cycle. The company is currently assessing its future options and plans for TAK-003, as well as evaluating the requirements for a potential BLA resubmission in the U.S., a spokesperson told Fierce Pharma. The FDA accepted Takeda’s BLA for TAK-003 in November 2022 and put the application under Priority Review, which typically results in a decision within six months versus the standard 10-month review period. “We will continue to progress regulatory reviews and provide access for people living in and traveling to dengue-endemic areas while we work to determine next steps in the U.S.,” Gary Dubin, president of Takeda’s vaccines business unit, said in a statement. TAK-003 is a tetravalent live-attenuated vaccine ...
As a shortage of key chemotherapy drugs continues to upend cancer treatment across the country, the FDA has resorted to securing some of the meds from China.After approving the importation of four lots back in May, the agency has now cleared 10 more lots of cisplatin for shipment to the U.S. from Chinese company Qilu Pharmaceuticals. Canada’s Apotex will distribute the drugs, which are expected to arrive this week, a company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma. Apotex is “very pleased” to aid in addressing the shortage, the spokesperson added. Cisplatin, along with fellow platinum-based chemotherapy carboplatin, are commonly used as a standard of care across many types of cancer. The newest import was first reported by Bloomberg. After the FDA flagged quality issues at a facility that produced the drug, a “ripple effect” ensued across the supply chain, the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence chief Richard Pazdur, M.D., told The Cancer ...
With Xspray Pharma and Eversana’s cancer med hitting a regulatory setback, a launch in the second half of 2023 now looks unlikely. That’s good news for Bristol Myers Squibb, which has secured a few more competition-free months for its aging leukemia blockbuster Sprycel. Swedish drugmaker Xspray has received an FDA complete response letter on its application for its first product Dasynoc. In issuing the rejection, the FDA requested additional information on the drug’s dosing plus greater clarity around a third-party manufacturing facility. Xspray is seeking an FDA nod for Dasynoc to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL). Despite issuing the rejection, Xspray said the FDA signed off on “critical aspects” of the application and did not identify any deficiencies pertaining to the drug’s stability or clinical data, the company said in a release Tuesday. Xspray is positioning its drug as a rival to BMS’ Sprycel, which clinched its first approval in CML back ...
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