SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. of Seongnam-si, South Korea, gained the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prequalification certification for typhoid conjugate vaccine, Skytyphoid (NBP-618), on Feb. 23. Skytyphoid conjugates a polysaccharide of typhoid bacteria, which serves as an antigen, to a diphtheria toxin protein called diphtheria toxoid that acts as a carrier.
Korean neurodegenerative disease-focused Aribio Co. Ltd. gained the U.K.’s regulatory clearance to start the phase III Polaris-AD trial on AR-1001 (mirodenafil), an investigative therapy for early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency gave notice of acceptance to Seoul, South Korea- and San Diego-based Aribio for the clinical study on Feb. 21 after “confirming a favorable ethical opinion,” Aribio said. AR-1001 is an oral phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor under development to treat early AD.
In recent years, the U.S. Congress has come to rely unduly on continuing budget resolutions to fund government operations, and fiscal year 2024 is no exception. The current continuing resolution (CR) for the FDA budget is set to expire March 1, but there is concern that Congress will resort yet again to a CR to cover the balance of fiscal 2024, a predicament which suggests that the FDA’s appropriations may be flat relative to fiscal year 2023.
The good news is that the U.S. FDA’s complete response letter (CRL) for Venatorx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s intravenous antibiotic combination, cefepime-taniborbactam, in complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) requested no additional clinical testing. The bad news is the inevitable delay for a drug Venatorx and partner Melinta Therapeutics Inc. are aiming to position as a much-needed option for the fight against drug-resistant gram-negative infections.
Chief executives of U.K. medical research charities have issued a call for speedier uptake and more equitable access to new drugs that have received a cost-effectiveness seal of approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. In a joint report with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the heads of eight charities examined a number of cases where access has been limited and set out recommendations to address the challenges of equity, uptake and health inequalities.
Seven new therapies, including two influenza vaccines, were recommended for approval by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use during its February 2024 meeting. One of these was sparsentan by CSL Vifor Pharma Inc. and Travere Therapeutics Inc. for the treatment of IgA nephropathy (IgAN), for which the committee has awarded conditional marketing authorization.
The new director of the U.S. NIH, Monica Bertagnolli, has set out the prospectus for her tenure, saying she intends to apply the agency’s $47 billion per annum budget to reverse the decline in health and life expectancy in the U.S.
As chronic drug shortages continue in the U.S., yet another congressional investigation into the problem has been launched. But instead of a wholistic search for the root causes, this one, launched by the Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, focuses on three drug companies – Pfizer Inc., Sandoz Inc. U.S. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
Instead of inter partes review (IPR) being a streamlined alternative to costly patent litigation as intended, a precedential decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit could make appeals of IPR decisions, regardless of their merits, another way to delay competition.
A China-based manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) suspended producing API for the U.S. market following an FDA inspection that found “significant deviations” from good manufacturing practices at the facility.
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