South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted marketing authorization to SK Bioscience Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine, Skycovione (GB-510), marking the country’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine to be approved. The company has already signed an advanced purchase agreement with the Korea Centers for Disease Control for 10 million doses of the vaccine.
The U.S. FDA has put five phase III studies of Sanofi SA’s potential multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis blockbuster tolebrutinib on partial clinical hold after several cases of liver injury were identified after exposure to the drug. Sanofi said new recruitment in the U.S. is paused and participants who have been part of the trial for fewer than 60 days should stop taking tolebrutinib, although those taking the drug for longer can continue.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Intuitive, Siemens Healthineers.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Akeso, Alx, Bristol Myers Squibb, Endevica, Freya, Inflarx, Ipsen, Obseva, Regeneron, Sanofi, Santhera, Teraimmune, Unibio.
The U.S. FDA reported a proposed down-classification for two device types intended for detection of melanoma, a move that would ease the premarket path for similar devices. The agency noted that it has received only one PMA application each for optical diagnostic devices and electrical impedance spectrometers, which suggests the agency sees these device types as suffering for want of interest on the part of device makers.
Shares in Ipsen SA edged higher June 29 after the firm announced it had refiled its palovarotene NDA with the U.S. FDA for the ultra-rare disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. The regulator granted a six-month priority review for the drug, which was once written off and had its FDA filing pulled in 2021 after officials asked for further analyses and data.
Given that Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine will be a latecomer to the U.S. scene if it gets FDA authorization, it’s been cast in a supporting role to the lead being played by the mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE. But the data presented at the June 28 Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee meeting suggest the Novavax adjuvanted protein vaccine may have the chops to take on a larger role in taming the pandemic.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Moleculight, Seegene.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bavarian Nordic, Gilead, Kite, MRM, Sanofi, Schrödinger, Soligenix, Verrica.
Peijia Medical Ltd. has received two marketing approvals from China’s NMPA for its catheters to be used in neurointerventional surgery. They are the balloon guide catheter (BGC) Fluxcap and delivery balloon dilation catheter Fastunnel. Both were developed by Peijia’s wholly owned subsidiary Achieva Medical Ltd.