Erlangen, Germany-based Siemens Healthineers AG has secured U.S. FDA clearance for its Rapidpoint 500e blood gas analyzer. Available in CE mark countries since August 2019, the device is used to monitor respiratory distress in critically ill patients, such as those in acute care due to COVID-19.
A U.S. district court in Nevada ruled in favor of two ANDA filers in Amarin Corp. plc.’s patent litigation case regarding its fish oil cardiovascular therapy franchise, Vascepa (icosapent ethyl), increasing the possibility of generics crowding Amarin’s U.S. sales.
To mitigate COVID-19-related drug shortages, the FDA issued new guidance reminding drug and biologic manufacturers of their legal obligations to notify the agency, in advance, of interruptions or the permanent discontinuance in the manufacturing of certain drugs. It also makes some new recommendations in light of the current emergency.
Pear Therapeutics Inc. obtained FDA approval for Somryst, the first prescription digital therapeutic for chronic insomnia. The app provides structured cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) with clinical dashboards for physicians. While CBT is the recommended first-line therapy for insomnia, the U.S. has only 500 therapists certified to provide CBT for insomnia (CBTi) for the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from chronic difficulty going to and staying asleep.
Not long after a morning earnings call on March 27 in which Intelgenx Corp. CEO Horst Zerbe said his team was still awaiting word from the FDA on its resubmitted 505(b)(2) application for its acute migraine candidate, Rizaport Versafilm, that news arrived in the form of a complete response letter (CRL), its third following earlier CRLs in February 2014 and April 2019.
Now that Rockwell Medical Inc.’s intravenous formulation of Triferic, Triferic AVNU (ferric pyrophosphate citrate) is FDA-approved, the nod coming a day before its PDUFA date of March 28, the company plans putting evaluation programs into action during the third quarter of this year. Only after those programs’ completion will the formulation be available commercially.
Aegea Medical Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., has received U.S. FDA approval for its next-generation Mara water vapor ablation system, the only endometrial ablation treatment that uses vapor to treat heavy menstrual bleeding. The first commercial procedure was performed by Kirk Brody, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Barely a day after its PDUFA date, despite the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA has approved Bristol Myers Squibb Co.'s immunomodulator, ozanimod, an oral treatment for adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) and active secondary progressive disease branded as Zeposia. The win, a much-anticipated milestone precipitated by the company’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of ozanimod developer Celgene Corp. in November 2019, gives patients a new treatment option amid a growing field of therapies for MS.
Like so many other ventilator providers in recent days, Resmed Inc. has committed to ramping up production. It aims to triple its ventilator output and multiply its ventilation mask production by 10. But the San Diego-based company’s specialty is not mechanical ventilation that requires intubation, which is most commonly used in the intensive care unit (ICU), although it does produce some of those.
The surge of interest in testing for the COVID-19 pathogen has led to some innovative tests and test strategies, including at-home tests. However, the FDA has indicated that it is wary of both at-home testing and specimen collection in other than supervised settings, a policy that is meeting with criticism from some quarters, but not all.
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