After August 2021 news from the U.S. FDA of deficiencies in the NDA that Axsome Therapeutics Inc. submitted for AXS-05 in major depressive disorder (MDD), word was especially welcome April 19 that the firm has come to an agreement with the agency with regard to post-marketing requirements. Meanwhile, another player in MDD, Relmada Therapeutics Inc., is due to report phase III data with REL-1017 (esmethadone) around the middle of this year.
Biogen Inc. has given up on its attempt to get its Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm (aducanumab) approved by regulators in Europe, deciding to withdraw its filing midway through a review of a previous rejection. The company had asked the European Medicines Agency’s CHMP to reconsider its negative opinion for Aduhelm in December 2021. But its subsidiary in the Netherlands wrote to the EMA this week saying that it had decided to withdraw its marketing authorization application after all.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Ampio, Dragon Boat, Hansa, Moleculin, Nrx, Otsuka, Tvardi, Vertex, Zambon.
The U.S. FDA wants feedback on its latest idea to reduce the number of unused prescription opioids shelved in American homes: requiring prepaid mail-back envelopes to be dispensed with the painkillers.
Privately held Orasis Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a step closer to challenging Abbvie Inc.’s Vuity (pilocarpine hydrochloride) ophthalmic solution for treating presbyopia, a version of farsightedness. Orasis plans to submit an NDA to the U.S. FDA in the second half of the year based on phase III results from two studies showing CSF-1 hit its primary and secondary endpoints.
Sponsors developing PI3K inhibitors to treat hematologic malignancies in the U.S. may have to up their game if they want to get FDA approval. The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 16-0, with one abstention, that future approvals of the drugs should be supported by randomized data. Given the FDA’s briefing document ahead of the April 21 meeting and its presentations to the committee, the agency is likely to follow that recommendation.
Citing the flexibilities implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bloomberg New Economy International Cancer Coalition is pushing to convert those improvements to a permanent paradigm shift in the way cancer patients are diagnosed, treated and cared for across the globe.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Clarius Mobile Health.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Allovir, JW, Keymed, Teva.
The FDA’s device center issued a safety communication advising that non-invasive genetic prenatal screening tests that are used to establish whether a fetus has a genetic abnormality can yield incorrect results. The problem stems in part from the fact that the agency has not yet reviewed any such tests, which are often administered as lab-developed tests (LDTs).