Shionogi & Co. Ltd.’s orally administered COVID-19 antiviral, 3CL protease inhibitor Xocova (ensitrelvir/S-217622), scored emergency regulatory approval from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the Japanese government has agreed to purchase 1 million courses of Xocova for domestic supply of the antiviral.

China recently approved four COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in a span of two days. The nods were granted to Clover Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Sinocelltech Group Ltd., Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co. Ltd. and Westvac Biopharma Co. Ltd. There is still no mRNA vaccine approved in the country.

Ironically, one of the casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic is an overdue review and revision of U.S. dual use research of concern (DURC) policies, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight guidance. Consequently, several senators are asking the White House to halt all ongoing and new viral gain-of-function and DURC studies in the life sciences that involve enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential.

With only a year to go before 100% compliance with the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act’s serialization provisions will be required from the beginning to the end of the drug supply chain, most biopharma manufacturers are pretty confident they’re ready for the Nov. 27, 2023, deadline. But distributors? Not so much. And they lay the blame at the manufacturers’ feet.

Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. has submitted a new drug application (NDA) for its anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody toripalimab to the European Medicines Agency, which marks the first NDA filing of toripalimab in Europe.

GSK plc said it will restrict the second-line maintenance indication for ovarian cancer drug Zejula (niraparib) to only patients with deleterious or suspected germline BRCA mutations, at the request of the FDA, in a sign that U.S. regulators aren’t going to relax scrutiny on PARP inhibitors any time soon.

Luye Pharma Group has received marketing approval from China’s NMPA for the triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor Ruoxinlin (toludesvenlafaxine hydrochloride) to treat patients with major depressive disorder, a condition that “has become one of the most prevalent mental disorders in China, causing a heavy burden on patients, their families and the entire society,” said Luye President Yang Rongbing.

Shanghai’s State Medical Products Administration announced that GSK plc has been banned from participating in volume-based procurement tenders until April 29, 2024, after failing a good manufacturing practices (GMP) inspection at a contract manufacturing plant in Poland that makes products for China.

The potential for psychedelics to deliver long-lasting benefits for people with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction is being put to the test in Australia, where new research and discovery centers are adding to a global enterprise of nearly 100 clinical trials underway in the space.

Expanding its mandate to accelerate access to essential medicines to people in low- and middle-income countries, the Medicines Patent Pool signed its first voluntary licensing agreement for a cancer treatment, Novartis AG’s Tasigna (nilotinib).