The U.K.’s competition watchdog has found that a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. and a generics firm jacked up the price of a life-saving epilepsy drug by up to 2,600%, fining them a total of £70 million (US$83.72 million). The Competition and Markets Authority’s decision is part of a long-running dispute against subsidiary Pfizer Ltd. and the generics firm Flynn Pharma Ltd.
After political leaders across the globe made patents and other intellectual property safeguards the scapegoat for disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, the biopharma industry is sharing its vision for how to deal with the foundational issues of equitable access in pandemics to come – and it has nothing to do with IP waivers like the one World Trade Organization members adopted last month.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acadia, Apellis, Astrazeneca, Avadel, Daiichi, Destiny, Gilead, Incyte, Moderna, Viking.
Although it’s a latecomer to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., there is a wedge of opportunity for Novavax Inc.’s adjuvanted protein-based vaccine among the 10% of the U.S. adult population that has yet to get a first jab.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Acer, Alzamend, Byondis, Calliditas, Entera, Eton, Relief, Rhythm, Stuart, Sumitomo.
A “clean” user fee bill with no congressionally added policy riders. It’s been a biopharma and med-tech dream for years. But now that U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has introduced such a bill, it could prove a nightmare, given competing legislation and the tight timetable for reauthorizing the user fee programs before the clock winds down on the current agreements Sept. 30 when fiscal 2022 ends.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has cleared Japan Tissue Engineering Co. Ltd.’s (J-Tec) autologous cultured cartilage, called Jacc, after a seven-year re-examination period. Headquartered in Gamagori, in Japan’s Aichi prefecture, J-Tec was the first company in Japan to receive conditional clearance of regenerative medicine therapies under the new regenerative medicine pathway.
If anti-aging drugs are to become widely available and adopted, especially in the U.S., they have some serious hurdles to overcome. And those hurdles aren’t all in the lab or clinic. With classes of anti-aging drugs already in the pipeline, “the biggest hurdle is FDA approval. Then reimbursement,” said George Kuchel, a professor and director of the UConn Center on Aging at the University of Connecticut. Read the final installment of BioWorld’s multipart series on extending the human lifespan.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Cstone, Escend, Gilead, Moderna, Neurophth, Neximmune, Novartis, Omega, Polpharma, Prescient.