The FDA approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ gene therapy Casgevy for treating beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disease that leads to low levels of functioning hemoglobin. Last month, the one-time treatment won its first FDA nod for treating sickle cell disease. By FRANK VINLUAN A one-time CRISPR-based gene therapy developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics now has an additional FDA approval as a treatment for the rare blood disease beta thalassemia. The affirmative decision announced Tuesday for the therapy, Casgevy, was widely expected following its December approval in sickle cell disease, but it comes more than two months early. The target date for an FDA decision in the beta thalassemia indication was March 30. Casgevy won its first ever regulatory approval in the United Kingdom, a November decision that covered both sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Beta thalassemia is an inherited disease in which genetic mutations lead to low levels ...
Allakos’s lirentelimab did not beat a placebo in separate Phase 2 tests in atopic dermatitis and spontaneous chronic urticaria. A restructuring now turns the biotech’s focus to an early-stage drug candidate also designed to treat inflammation. By FRANK VINLUAN The lead therapeutic candidate of Allakos has failed in two mid-stage clinical trials for inflammatory skin disorders, leading the biotech to halt work on the drug. Allakos is shifting its focus to an earlier-stage program in its pipeline but will do so with fewer staff. A corporate shakeup is shaving about half of the company’s workforce. San Carlos, California-based Allakos aims to treat allergic, inflammatory, and proliferative diseases with antibodies that target receptors on cells that create immune responses in the body. By activating inhibitory receptors, these drugs are intended to stop inflammation. Its most advanced drug candidate was lirentelimab, which was designed to target an inhibitory receptor on mast cells ...
Pfizer is still hungry for ADC opportunities, including in the Far East. Astellas’ impressive phase 3 data for its gastric cancer candidate couldn’t garner an approval because of manufacturing issues. Takeda’s 2022 TYK2 buy from Nimbus was highly competitive, an exec said. And more. 1. JPM24: Even after Seagen buyout, Pfizer oncology chief still eyes ADC deals As Pfizer continues its prowl for antibody-drug conjugate (ADCs) deals, the company is keeping an eye on opportunities around the globe. In an interview, Pfizer’s new oncology chief Chris Boshoff, Ph.D., said the company is looking for opportunities in China, which he said “is important in this whole area, especially ADC development.” The company is “not currently looking for big acquisitions,” Boshoff added. 2. Astellas’ gastric cancer candidate rejected by FDA because of manufacturing issues After running two phase 3 trials, Astellas’ near-term approval ambitions for its zolbetuximab have been dashed because of ...
More than 400 million cases of urinary tract infections (UTIs) are reported every year across the world. The gold standard for diagnosing UTIs and planning a treatment course depends on rapid dipstick tests and clinical diagnostic analysis. However, dipsticks have low specificity and can yield false positives, resulting in the overuse of antibiotics. Additionally, clinical tests have a lengthy turnaround time and offer 80% accuracy, resulting in physicians opting for the wrong course of treatment. Now, a benchtop analyzer with the ability to accurately identify the causative bug and the right antibiotic in under an hour could be a game changer for UTI diagnosis. Astek Diagnostics (Baltimore, MD, USA) is developing the JIDDU benchtop analyzer to improve UTI diagnosis through rapid, one-hour turnaround times and an unprecedented 96% accuracy. Leveraging a novel method for antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST), JIDDU rapidly detects bacterial infections in urine samples, assesses infection severity, and ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released an update on its evaluation of suicidal risk related to glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). The agency did not find a clear link to suicidal risk through a review of reports of suicidal thoughts or actions received in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System agency (FAERS) and a meta-analysis of GLP-1 RA clinical trials. Looking at FAERS data, regulators found that reported incidents were often limited in the information provided and did not offer enough evidence to determine a clear relationship with GLP-1 RA use. Furthermore, the large outcome studies and observational studies showed no association between suicidal thoughts or actions and the use of the drug class. Despite this, the agency said that due to the small number of suicidal ideation cases, it would not yet definitively rule out a potential link with GLP-1RA use. The FDA will share its ...
A preliminary evaluation by the FDA found no evidence that use of popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly can cause suicidal thoughts, the U.S. regulator said. Over the last several months, the agency has been looking into reports of suicidal thoughts or actions from users of the GLP-1 treatments gathered through its FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), it said. “Because the information provided was often limited and because these events can be influenced by other potential factors, we determined that the information in these reports did not demonstrate a clear relationship with the use of (GLP-1s),” the FDA wrote. The agency said its reviews of clinical trials and observational studies found no association between the treatments and suicidal thoughts. Ten days ago, the FDA drew attention when it included the trendy therapies on a list of medicines it said it was monitoring for side ...
An FDA inquiry has found no evidence so far that GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and weight loss cause suicidal thoughts or actions. The review was prompted by reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System, or FAERS, a database that collects information about adverse events that may be linked to a medication. A report in FAERS does not establish causation, nor has information in the reports been verified. The FDA said on Thursday that over the last several months, it has reviewed reports of suicidal thoughts or actions in FAERS as well as data from clinical trials. The information in these reports was limited and can be influenced by other factors, the FDA said. Consequently, the agency said it determined the reports did not demonstrate a clear relationship with GLP-1 drugs. This finding is preliminary. “However, because of the small number of suicidal thoughts or actions observed in both people ...
Recently, the FUTURE series of studies has brought good news again. The results of the FUTURE-SUPER clinical trial led by the team of Prof. Zhimin Shao and Prof. Zhonghua Wang from the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University have been announced, which fully confirmed the effectiveness and safety of the first-line precision treatment based on the “Fudan typing”, and is about to change the clinical practice of the treatment of TNBC. The results of the study will be announced in 2023. The results of the study were first announced at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in 2023, which attracted the attention of scholars around the world, and on January 9, 2024, the study was published in The Lancet Oncology, the top international oncology journal, with an impact factor as high as 51.1 under a fast-track system. The clinical study is also another landmark achievement of the ...
Roughly 10-15% of individuals with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) eventually develop neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), a challenging cancer subtype. This transformation is marked by a change from androgen-dependent cancer cells to those that no longer respond to androgens. Diagnosing NEPC typically involves a biopsy from a metastatic tumor, but this can be uncertain due to timing issues and the heterogeneous nature of metastatic tumors. Now, researchers have developed a blood test that can reliably detect NEPC and differentiate it from CRPC-adenocarcinoma (CRPC-adeno). In previous research, an international team of researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA, USA and the University of Trento (Trento, Italy) examined biopsy tissue samples to identify genetic and epigenetic shifts accompanying this shift from cancer cells that are dependent on hormones called androgens to cancer cells that no longer even recognize androgens. They discovered distinctive genome-wide epigenetic alterations, particularly in DNA methylation, that differentiate CRPC-adeno ...
Pharmaceutical Executive Editorial Staff SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc’s CDK9 inhibitor SLS009 is being evaluated in an ongoing Phase I/II study in combination with Venclexta and Vidaza for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The FDA has granted Fast Track Designation to SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc’s CDK9 inhibitor SLS009 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The regulatory action was based on safety and efficacy data for the drug, which is being evaluated in an ongoing Phase I/II study (NCT04588922) in combination with Venclexta (venetoclax) and Vidaza (azacytidine) for patients with AML. “Receiving fast track designation for SLS009 for relapsed or refractory AML, following the recent orphan drug designation for the same indication, underscores the potential for SLS009 and highlights the critical unmet need for patients with AML who face a poor prognosis due to the progressive nature of the disease,” ...
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