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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Dive Brief: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is facing a delay for a much-anticipated new version of its best-selling eye medicine after failing to win U.S. approval on Tuesday because of a manufacturing issue. The Food and Drug Administration issued a complete response letter for the high-dose version of Eylea, citing inspection findings at a third-party facility that fills vials of the medication. Regeneron said it’s working with the FDA and the third party to resolve the issues “as quickly as possible.” Importantly, the FDA did not cite any issues with the drug’s safety or efficacy and isn’t asking for new clinical trials. The agency also did not find any issues with the labeling or manufacturing of the actual drug substance, Regeneron said. Dive Insight: While the issue sounds relatively minor, any delay is significant for Regeneron, and the company’s shares tumbled around 11% during trading sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Eylea is ...
Merely a month into an FDA approval, AbbVie and Genmab’s bispecific drug Epkinly has chalked up a positive readout that might enable an expansion in blood cancer, although the exact regulatory path remains unclear. Epkinly significantly beat back tumors in 82% of patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma in a phase 1/2 trial, the companies said Tuesday. The patients had received a minimum two—and a median three—prior lines of systemic therapy. The median duration of response hasn’t been reached in Epkinly’s study, and investigators are still following patients. The companies also didn’t disclose the complete response rate. Full results from the study will be shared at a future medical meeting. Epkinly snagged an FDA approval for previously treated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCLC) in May, and AbbVie and Genmab said they will talk to regulators about next steps in FL, an indolent form of lymphoma. If approved in the ...
By Tristan Manalac https://www.biospace.com/ Despite a risk of bias and false positives, the FDA appears to be open to considering Ipsen’s post-hoc analysis of a Phase III study to support the approval of its investigational therapy palovarotene, proposed for the ultra-rare disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive. Ipsen is seeking approval for a once-a-day, 5-mg dose of palovarotene, along with a flare-up regimen consisting of a 20-mg once-daily schedule for the first four weeks followed by 10-mg once-daily for eight weeks, according to the company’s briefing document posted ahead of an Endocrinologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting scheduled Wednesday. To support its regulatory bid, Ipsen provided data from one Phase II study with multiple open-label extension phases and a single-arm, open-label Phase III study, which used an external natural history control. However, according to the FDA’s briefing material, palovarotene failed its Phase III study, which “crossed the prespecified futility boundary at the second ...
Pfizer’s Litfulo (ritlecitinib) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first treatment option for patients aged 12 years and older with severe alopecia areata. Affecting almost seven million people in the US and approximately 147 million people globally, alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease characterised by patchy or complete hair loss on the scalp, face, or body. The condition can develop at any age, with nearly 20% of patients diagnosed before the age of 18. Litfulo, which is a one-daily oral kinase inhibitor, is thought to work by blocking the activity of signalling molecules and immune cells believed to contribute to the loss of hair in patients with alopecia areata. Angela Hwang, chief commercial officer, president, Global Biopharmaceuticals Business, Pfizer, said: “Litfulo is an important treatment advancement for alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that previously had no FDA-approved options for adolescents and limited options ...
After years of using the patent system to delay competition from a rival company and then exhausting that ploy early this year, Jazz Pharmaceuticals is taking a new route—suing the FDA.Jazz is challenging the regulator for approving Avadel Pharmaceuticals’ narcolepsy drug Lumryz, which poses a major threat to Jazz’s blockbuster Xyrem/Xywav franchise. In U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., Jazz claimed that the green light for Lumryz—which was awarded on May 1—was “unlawful.” The Dublin company says that the approval violated the orphan drug exclusivity (ODE) the agency granted to Xywav in 2021. In awarding Lumryz its own ODE, the FDA ruled that Lumryz is superior to Jazz’s offerings, citing its ability to make a major contribution to patient care based on its convenience and additional clinical benefit. While Lumryz is taken once a night, Xywav requires two doses. Both are oral suspension drugs. Jazz maintains that the FDA acted ...
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