The U.S. FTC picked up six allies in its unprecedented effort to stop Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc, as the attorneys general for California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Washington and Wisconsin joined the agency in signing onto an amended complaint filed under seal June 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) has concluded an analysis that found fault with Medicare payments for genetic testing under CPT code 81408, a code that covers tests for a variety of mutations of medical interest. According to OIG, these claims were often paid $2,000 each despite poor oversight from Medicare administrative contractors (MACs), raising the risk that a substantial percentage of roughly $888 million in claims paid between 2018 and 2021 were either fraudulent or at best inappropriate.
U.S. Medicare coverage for breakthrough devices has been a hot topic for several years now, but industry is one step closer to making this policy dream a reality thanks to another new proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency released a new version of the Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) program that seems to satisfy most of what med-tech trade associations sought, but the catch is that manufacturers must notify CMS of their intent to take part in TCET a year before the FDA will decide whether to grant market authorization to the device.
Dexcom Inc. rolled out its plans for 2024 and 2025 at an Investor Day event held at the beginning of the American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting in its hometown of San Diego on June 23. The company is looking to expand from diabetes into metabolic health more broadly and previewed several new products designed to appeal to a wider market.
The U.S. FDA reported a pilot program for validation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) used as companion diagnostics, a move that seems an implicit recognition that test kits as CDx products are not the darlings of test developers. The program arrives as the agency is considering rulemaking for regulation of LDTs, however, a combination of developments that promises to roil the already strained relationship between the FDA and clinical labs.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. is set to introduce the first gene transfer therapy for ambulatory patients diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), after the U.S. FDA granted accelerated approval to SRP-9001 (delandistrogene moxeparvovec). Branded Elevidys, the therapy marks Sarepta’s fourth approved treatment for DMD and the first to offer patients a one-time treatment option.
The question of when U.S. federal attorneys can dismiss a whistleblower suit filed under the False Claims Act (FCA) has roiled the courts for several years, but the Supreme Court has laid many of those questions to rest in an 8-1 ruling which said that the government can dismiss a whistleblower FCA case only after federal attorneys have intervened.
The floodgates have opened for challenges to the new U.S. drug price negotiation process laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that was narrowly passed last year.
In its newly issued complete response letter (CRL) to Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc., the U.S. FDA said there’s just not enough evidence of efficacy right now to approve ADX-2191, an injectable vitreous-compatible formulation of methotrexate to treat primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL).
Following a three-month delay, the U.S. FDA approved under priority review a subcutaneous formulation of Argenx SE’s efgartigimod, offering patients a much more convenient way to treat generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG).
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