China’s National Medical Products Administration has cleared Immuneonco Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s’ IMM-01 (timdarpacept) to enter a pivotal phase III trial in combination with Beigene Co. Ltd.’s PD-1 inhibitor, tislelizumab, in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma patients who relapsed or progressed after treatment with PD-1 inhibitors.
Genfleet Therapeutics Inc. has entered the KRAS G12C inhibitor race in the U.S. as it gears up to begin phase III trials of GFH-925 (IBI-351) in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) following FDA clearance.
As of Jan. 31, 2024, there were more than 300 CAR T trials registered in China, surpassing the U.S. and becoming the country with the most CAR T therapy clinical trials. Among them, CD19 is the most frequently studied target, according to BioWorld and Cortellis. The rapid evolution of CAR T-cell therapies in China has escalated over the past decade from the start of the first clinical trials in 2013 to the country becoming an established host for CAR T-cell-related trials by 2017, according to Yongxian Hu and researchers from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Chinese cell therapy companies – backed by $2.37 billion in funding in 2021 – have since significantly increased basic research and trial output for CAR Ts, which was welcomed by large patient demand.
Royal Philips NV may feel it has had enough recent interaction with the U.S. FDA, but the company is now in receipt of a warning letter from the agency over a facility located in Suzhou, China. The FDA was none too fond of the facility’s handling of a contract manufactured data cable used in CT systems because of malfunctions that may have delayed diagnostic imaging procedures, representing yet another regulatory distraction for a company that recently cleared a long-running conflict with the FDA over CPAP machines.
China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has issued a guidance for human factors engineering (HFE) of medical devices, a document that by some accounts aligns fairly well with guidance from the U.S. FDA. However, Yvonne Limpens, manager of the human factors program at Emergo by UL, said NMPA may push for domestic HFE testing on imported devices because of a perception that device usability may be different in China than in other nations, thus adding to the cost of doing business in the world’s second most populous nation.
Neurovalens Ltd recently received U.S. FDA clearance for its Modius Stress device, a neurostimulator that treats people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It also closed a £2.1 million (US$2.65 million) funding round and is planning to raise up to $50 million in a series B fundraising round to be launched later this year.
After several delays, the interleukin-15 superagonist Anktiva (nogapendekin alfa inbakicept) from Immunitybio Inc. has been approved by the U.S. FDA for treating bladder cancer, specifically Bacillus Calmette-Guérin-unresponsive non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ, with or without papillary tumors.
Lumicell Inc. sees a brighter future now that it has secured U.S. FDA approval for both its new drug application for Lumisight (pegulicianine) optical imaging agent and premarket approval for the Lumicell direct visualization system.
Genfleet Therapeutics Inc. has entered the KRAS G12C inhibitor race in the U.S. as it gears up to begin phase III trials of GFH-925 (IBI-351) in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) following FDA clearance. GFH-925 was the first KRAS G12C inhibitor to receive breakthrough therapy designation from China's National Medical Products Administration for previously treated advanced CRC.
The U.S. FDA has cleared Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc’s IND to initiate a phase I first-in-human, clinical trial of ORX-750 for the treatment of narcolepsy.