The advantage of the U.S. FDA’s effort to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in medical devices is that it is specific to medical devices and other medical products, but this vertical approach to AI regulation might soon become exceptionally complicated thanks to a new AI risk management framework posted by the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST guideline is agnostic to the sector of the economy and thus may carry with it the expectation that developers of software as a medical device will hew to both the NIST framework and FDA regulations, a layering of requirements that could vastly complicate the task of developing and deploying these algorithms.
A Jan. 27 settlement the U.S. SEC reached with a former vice president at a biotech company serves as a reminder that insider trading rules applies to suppliers as well as the companies involved in an M&A.
Taking aim at big pharma’s current penchant for acquisition over in-house innovation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider the impact a biopharma merger, whether it’s proposed or a done deal, may have on future innovation.
The Australian government has begun its closely watched independent review of the health technology assessment (HTA) process in the country, and it delivered a first peek at what it will consider. This independent review of the HTA system is the first of its kind in nearly 30 years.
China’s NMPA granted conditional approvals to two COVID-19 drugs under a special examination and approval procedure aimed at addressing urgent needs. The approvals are both for oral small-molecule drugs for adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections. One of the approved drugs is Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd.’s Xiannuoxin (simnotrelvir/ritonavir). The other is Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s VV-116 (deuremidevir hydrobromide).
The U.S. FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to Abbisko Therapeutics Co. Ltd.’s colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) inhibitor, pimicotinib, for patients with tenosynovial giant cell tumors who are not able to have surgery.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Guardant Health.
Winning the race to market with the first oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for breast cancer is Menarini Group’s elacestrant, which gained U.S. FDA approval for use as second- and third-line therapy in patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced or metastatic disease with the ESR1 mutation. It marks the first therapy approved specifically targeting ESR1, found in up to 40% of patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative disease.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Amarin, Argenx, Astrazeneca, Bioaegis, Bloomsbury, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Exegi, Ipsen, Merck, Orion, Regeneron, Sana, Sanofi, Viatris.
Makers of medical devices and pharmaceuticals face a significant risk of product liability litigation, but the use of third-party funding of such lawsuits is a novelty in the U.S. relative to some other Western nations. Nonetheless, a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes clear that third-party litigation funding is an increasing common practice that seeks to include uninjured parties in mass tort litigation, thus endangering the fortunes of those who invest in life science companies.