As a last-ditch effort to preserve skinny labeling for generics, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit split opinion in Glaxosmithkline plc v. Teva Pharmaceuticals that upset the status quo of the generic marketplace.
The data safety monitoring board overseeing Contrafect Corp.’s phase III study of exebacase, a hydrolase stimulator for treating Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, recommended the study be stopped. In an interim analysis, the board said the conditional power of the study was below the prespecified threshold for futility.
The U.S. FDA has given Sonalasense Inc. a green light to conduct two clinical trials in life-threatening brain tumors using sonodynamic therapy (SDT) and SONALA-001, an intravenous proprietary formulation of 5-aminolevulinic acid, or ALA. The studies – in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) – mark the first time SDT will have been used in clinical trials.
The U.S. FDA’s two-day meeting of the patient engagement advisory committee (PEAC) covered a range of issues surrounding augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products, but patient information and education was one of the key considerations. Naiem Nassiri of Yale Medicine cautioned, however, that a 15-minute briefing between doctor and patient during a face-to-face encounter would likely create more confusion than clarity, a conclusion that would suggest that other patient education methods will likely be needed.
COVID-19 is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. The U.S. CDC unwrapped one of those “presents” in a July 12 report that showed the threat of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections has worsened — with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths in the U.S. each increasing at least 15% during the first year of the pandemic.
Legislation that would renew the U.S. FDA’s user fee programs is stuck in process on Capitol Hill, a predicament that seems to resist resolution to date. FDA commissioner Robert Califf said on a July 12 webinar that the FDA “is a decision-making machine” that is reliant on both user fees and congressional appropriations, and that a failure on the part of Congress to act on user fee legislation may force the agency to halt new hires and possibly lay off some FDA staff.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been moving aggressively on privacy issues in connection with health data in the past two years, but the agency has issued an advisory of sorts to collectors of these data points. The FTC said July 11 that it intends to crack down on violators in an effort to protect data privacy.
The U.S. FDA’s third-party review program for 510(k) filings has perhaps never quite lived up to expectations that this program would take a significant load off the FDA’s shoulders, and the latest quarterly report does nothing to detract from that perception.
The U.S. CMS posted the draft Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) for calendar year 2023, and advocates of telehealth will be cheered by a proposed extension of some pandemic-driven telehealth services throughout 2023. The draft is less generous in connection with external electrocardiogram patches in a move that could ding Irhythm Technologies Inc., and its Zio XT device, but analysts at BTIG predict that any hit to reimbursement rates is likely to be offset with greater sales volumes, leaving Irhythm and its investors in a solid place going forward.
The U.S. FDA’s rule for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids was several years late coming out, but the rule has nonetheless proven controversial from the outset. Two members of the U.S. Senate have blasted device makers for what they allege is interference with the rulemaking process via “astroturf” campaigns to prod hearing aid users to influence the agency’s final rule.
RSS
