The first bispecific antibody to win regulatory approval is about to make a comeback 10 years after being taken off the market in Europe for commercial reasons. Catumaxomab, then called Removab, and now reborn with the brand name Korjuny, received a positive opinion for the treatment of malignant ascites from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP,) at its monthly meeting Oct. 14 to 17.
The U.S. SEC filed insider trading charges against Ruimin Xie, the former director of analytical development at Bellus Health Inc., for allegedly receiving ill-gotten gains of $59,408.42 by acting on word of a potential acquisition by GSK plc.
The U.S. FDA approved 23 drugs in September, up from 22 in August and 17 in July, bringing the 2024 monthly average to nearly 20. This surpasses last year's 16 per month, 12.5 in 2022, and 17 per month in both 2021 and 2020.
U.S. biotechs and regulators ushered in the era of gene therapy in 2023, experts at Bio Japan said, but medical reform is needed to pave the way for the “year of cell therapy” in 2024 and implement wider access to ultra-expensive cell and gene therapies.
Insider trading isn’t always about profits. Sometimes it’s avoiding losses. That’s the basis of the U.S. SEC’s complaint against Matthew Groom, an information technology consultant to Spero Therapeutics Inc. Groom agreed Sept. 15 to a $28,000 settlement to resolve the complaint stemming from a trade of Spero shares that enabled him to avoid $13,000 in losses when news of the company’s downsizing and issues with its lead product became public two years ago.
With two complete response letters in the rearview mirror, Abbvie Inc.’s Vyalev (foscarbidopa/foslevodopa) has been approved by the U.S. FDA for treating Parkinson’s disease. The drug is the first subcutaneous 24-hour infusion of levodopa-based therapy for treating motor fluctuations in adults with advanced disease.
Shares of Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) dropped nearly 20% Oct. 16 to close at $10.15 after the company reported a serious adverse event had prompted a U.S. FDA clinical hold for its COVID-19-influenza combination and standalone flu vaccine candidates.
Coming on the heels of an advisory committee in which the U.S. FDA and its independent advisers grappled with trying to fit an ultra-rare disease development program into the confines of the agency’s “significant evidence” requirements, an Oct. 16 public meeting on a Rare Disease Innovation Hub the agency is setting up seemed like a welcome step in the right direction for rare disease patients, their caregivers and companies working in the space.
The U.S. FDA has approved the second hemophilia drug in nearly six months from Pfizer Inc. This one, Hympavzi (marstacimab), is for preventing or reducing bleeding in those age 12 and older with hemophilia A and B. Hympavzi heralds a couple of market boundary breakers: it’s the first and only anti-tissue factor pathway inhibitor approved in the U.S. for hemophilia A or B and the first hemophilia medicine approved in the U.S. to be administered using a pre-filled, auto-injector pen.
China’s National Medical Products Administration has given the thumbs up to Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s NDA for ongericimab, a recombinant humanized anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibody, marking the third PCSK9 inhibitor to be cleared in China.
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