The first acellular tissue engineered vessel for adults with vascular trauma in a bodily extremity has been approved by the U.S. FDA. Symvess, which comes from regenerative tissue developer Humacyte Inc., can be used to repair an arterial injury that could be life threatening and require immediate attention.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO Brett Monia predicted that diagnoses of familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) will “accelerate fairly quickly” now that the firm has gained U.S. FDA clearance for Tryngolza (olezarsen) as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglycerides in adults with the rare form of severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG) that can lead to life-threatening acute pancreatitis (AP).
Shares in Zealand Pharma A/S (CO:ZEAL) dropped 22.4% to as low as DKK587 (US$82.16) on Dec. 20, after the U.S. FDA issued a complete response letter (CRL) for glepaglutide in the treatment of short bowel syndrome.
Merit Medical Systems Inc. received an early holiday gift this year, reporting that its Wrapsody cell-impermeable endoprosthesis has received premarket approval from the U.S. FDA and plans to begin commercialization of the device there in 2025.
A spate of year-end collaborations highlights growing enthusiasm for expanding use of automated insulin delivery devices or pumps in management of type 1 diabetes only to include many patients with type 2 diabetes. Beneficiaries include pump makers Tandem Diabetes Care Inc., Insulet Corp. and Medtronic plc as well as the leaders in the continuous glucose monitoring market, Abbott Laboratories and Dexcom Inc.
A new method to diagnose skin cancer was validated for the first time in clinical trials that show Dermr Health Solutions Pty Ltd.’s non-invasive microneedle patch collects near-equivalent genetic information compared to a skin biopsy without pain or cutting.
The Danish Medicines Agency is to ask the EMA’s pharmacovigilance committee to investigate a potential increased risk of an acute eye condition in diabetic patients being treated with the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist Ozempic (semaglutide).
A principal investigator and a former biopharma executive are the latest to reach settlements with the SEC to resolve charges of insider trading involving drug companies. Sai-Hong Ignatius Ou, of the University of California Irvine, agreed to a judgment ordering him to disgorge more than $1.5 million and to pay a civil penalty of the same amount. In a separate, unrelated settlement, Curt Dewitz, a former executive of an undisclosed biopharma company, agreed to disgorge about $70,383 in unlawful profits.
The end of the year will be the end of an era at the FDA, as Bob Temple shuts his door at CDER for the last time Dec. 31. After more than half a century at the FDA’s drug center, Temple has become the backbone of CDER’s new drug program, providing expertise and stability as other personnel have come and gone.
A Chinese player entered the U.S. non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) arena as the U.S. FDA cleared Xcovery Holdings Inc.’s Ensacove (ensartinib) as a first-line therapy for adults with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive locally advanced or metastatic disease who have not previously received an ALK-inhibitor. Xcovery, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is a subsidiary of Betta Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd, of Hangzhou, China.