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.
With labeling discussions begun for TG Therapeutics Inc.’s ublituximab to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis, Wall Street was optimistic about the PDUFA date of Dec. 28 assigned to the glycoengineered CD20 monoclonal antibody. Shares of New York-based TG (NASDAQ:TGTX) closed Nov. 11 at $9.34, up 91 cents, or 10.8%, having risen more than 52% over the previous five days. With late-cycle review talks with the U.S. FDA done, ublituximab seemed well on its way.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Biogx, Novocure, Trireme Medical.
Acting on its new promise to restore “rigorous enforcement” of the U.S. ban on unfair methods of competition, the FTC filed an amicus brief Nov. 10 supporting Avadel CNS Pharmaceuticals LLC’s motion to delist a Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. patent from the FDA’s Orange Book.
Viatris Inc.’s chief information officer, Ramkumar Rayapureddy, is facing an SEC insider trading complaint, along with criminal charges brought by the fraud division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Another man, Brian Wong, was charged with illegal trading ahead of Merck & Co. Inc.’s acquisition of Pandion Therapeutics Inc.
In addition to the Medicare inflation rebate and the other pricing reforms of the Inflation Reduction Act, manufacturers of certain Part B drugs will be subject to a refund provision tucked away in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed into U.S. law last year.
The U.S. FDA hit a Phoenix-based Abraxis Biosciences LLC facility with a warning letter citing out-of-control aseptic manufacturing processes for Abraxane (paclitaxel), a key chemotherapy drug. The letter, posted Nov. 8, noted that multiple media fill failures occurred last year during simulated aseptic processing operations on the Abraxane filling line.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Astrazeneca, Biomebank, Eikonoklastes, Nfl, Novartis, Oryzon, Regeneron, Xilio.
The U.S. FDA recently convened an advisory committee to address accuracy issues with pulse oximetry devices, with a significant focus on skin pigmentation as a source of noise in the results generated by these class II devices. However, a number of other factors, including obesity and finger size/diameter, also cloud the values generated by pulse oximeters, all of which combine into a large set of variables that premarket studies may have to address before the FDA will issue new marketing authorizations.