Regulatory
The FDA in a complete response letter to Replimune maintained its original objection to the single-arm trial the biotech used to support the application for RP1.
GSK discontinued Wellcovorin in 1999, but the FDA in September last year asked the pharma to refile an application, pointing to its potential to treat cerebral folate deficiency with “autistic features.”
A Louisiana court on April 7 asked the FDA to complete its internal review of mifepristone’s safety and gave the agency six months to provide the court with an update on the investigation.
The approval of Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug officially ignites an intense competition with Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy; Gilead Sciences and Neurocrine Biosciences keep the M&A train chugging; Trump hits pharma with his long promised tariffs, and the FDA proposes many changes with 2027 budget.
If the Trump administration’s proposal passes, the FDA’s budget will be more than $200 million bigger in 2027, with plans to launch new programs that expedite drug development, boost national security and promote “radical transparency.”
The upcoming FDA decision for Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug could be a litmus test for the agency’s future regulatory decision-making, analysts say, with implications stretching well beyond one company.
While recent FDA guidance speaks to the agency’s support of innovative trial designs—including the use of external controls—the application of this flexibility appears to be inconsistent. One former regulator says the situation is more nuanced.
Nobel laureate Sir Michael Houghton and colleagues at Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API) outline how rigorous early testing, smart IP and regulatory planning, and scalable CMC choices can help founders reach first-in-human faster.
With CBER director Vinay Prasad set to depart the agency at the end of the month, a coalition of patient groups and biotech executives penned a letter imploring the Trump administration to “restore regulatory clarity” for rare disease therapies. Experts on a BioSpace panel last week also acknowledged the challenges faced by a more stringent FDA.
As Novo Nordisk cuts 400 jobs at the troubled site, Scholar Rock has seen enough progress that it included the facility in a resubmission for FDA approval.
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