The U.K. has become the first country in Europe to approve Leqembi (lecanemab), but as the breakthrough decision was announced, the health technology assessment body NICE said the benefits are too small to justify the cost of providing the Alzheimer’s disease therapy on the National Health Service (NHS).
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s broad rule banning noncompete employment clauses has been struck down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In a final judgment from Judge Ada Brown, the court set aside the noncompete rule, saying it won’t be enforced or take effect as had been planned on Sept. 4.
Drug and device sponsors conducting clinical trials in China to support U.S. FDA approval may want to reconsider their choice of trial sites, as trials conducted at hospitals and clinics affiliated with China’s military or in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region could be in for increased scrutiny.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. suffered an unsurprising hitch in the form of a complete response letter (CRL) related to linvoseltamab, a bispecific antibody designed to bridge B-cell maturation antigen on multiple myeloma cells containing CD3-expressing T cells, for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
The U.S. FDA approved Janssen Biotech Inc.’s Rybrevant (amivantamab-vmjw) plus a new oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor called Lazcluze (lazertinib) as a first-line combination treatment to treat select non-small-cell lung cancers.
Cresilon Inc. secured U.S. FDA clearance for Traumagel, a hydrogel that stops potentially life-threatening bleeding in seconds. Cresilon designed the product for use by the U.S. military, first responders and medical professionals to swiftly and effectively stop bleeding from traumatic wounds
Algodx AB received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its sepsis detection software Navoy CDS. The technology, which analyzes patient data, has the potential to improve patient outcomes as it enables clinicians to detect and treat sepsis earlier.
The U.K. Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency enacted its AI Airlock program for artificial intelligence – the agency’s branding for its regulatory sandbox for this type of medical software.
The U.S. FDA’s effort to regulate lab-developed tests was predictably controversial, but the final rule drew a second lawsuit, this time from the Association for Molecular Pathology.
While the Biden administration continues applauding the savings it claims will be delivered by the first round of Medicare negotiations, many U.S. patients and their families are worried about the cost of the biopharma price-setting program – a cost they measure not in dollars and cents, but in worsening illness and lives that may be lost to a downturn in innovation and an upturn in barriers to access.