The first therapies for several rare diseases were among medicines given the green light by European regulators at their monthly meeting. The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) gave a positive opinion for Sanofi SA’s Xenpozyme (olipudase alfa) for two types of Niemann-Pick disease and Eiger Biopharmaceuticals Inc.’s Zokinvy (lonafarnib) for children with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome or progeroid laminopathies. PTC Therapeutics Inc.’s Upstaza (eladocagene exuparvovec), the first medicine for adults and children with aromatic L-amino decarboxylase deficiency, was also backed by the CHMP.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Biontech, Eiger, Eli Lilly, Indaptus, Karyopharm, Merck, Mersana, Mirati, Novartis, Pfizer, Poxel, PTC, Saniona, Sanofi, Siga, Simcere, Tallac, Tetra, Umecrine, Valneva.
The Biden administration recently reported that a new round of free rapid tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is available to the public, a development that coincides with a new surge of the latest sub-variant of the omicron variant. However, the administration is also expected to renew the public health emergency (PHE) for the pandemic, even as the White House continues to press Congress for another $22 billion in pandemic-related funding.
Device makers do not engage in direct-to-consumer advertisement at the same pace as drug makers, but advertising and promotions are still a minefield of potential enforcement action for the unwary manufacturer. According to Jesse Atkins and Nate Downing of Gardner Law in Stillwater, Minn., even a minor skirmish with the FDA can result in an extensive review of standard operating procedures, a potentially expensive and time-consuming distraction from companies fighting for market share in the hotly contested U.S. market.
Two days after the U.S. FDA authorized a single booster dose of the Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) gave its blessing to the third dose.
Another spate of U.S. FDA guidances for prescription drug manufacturers includes updates for carton labeling, product-specific advice and recommendations on mitigating potential drug shortages.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Accelus, Cepheid, Neuromatrix.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acelrx, Active Biotech, Alnylam, Calliditas, Cansino, Cytovation, Gedea.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint in U.S. district court related to marketing of a pelvic muscle rehabilitation system by the Prometheus Group of Raleigh, N.C., stating that the company encouraged health care professionals to reuse rectal pressure sensors and anorectal manometry catheters on multiple patients.
Clinical laboratories and hospitals have routine commercial interactions, and most of those are entirely legal, but this is not always the case. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently decreed that an arrangement in which the hospital pays the lab for blood specimen collection handling services, or a “draw fee,” would not be permissible under the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), reinforcing an existing understanding that such activities present a significant legal hazard for operators of clinical labs.
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