Regulatory
Members of the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee questioned the design of AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 trial of camizestrant, which involved switching treatments at the point of mutation detection, as opposed to the current practice of changing regimens upon disease progression.
UniQure plans to submit AMT-130 to the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the third quarter of 2026 based on Phase 1/2 data showing a 75% slowing of disease—the same data the FDA has deemed unacceptable for a biologics license application.
The patient death occurred outside the U.S. and was deemed unrelated to Newron Pharmaceuticals’ investigational schizophrenia drug.
While some analysts consider the return of advisory committees a positive sign for the FDA—and the biopharma industry more widely—others are keeping their optimism in check, waiting instead for more foundational changes at the regulator.
In briefing documents released Wednesday, the FDA raises doubts about two AstraZeneca assets set to be discussed Friday at the agency’s first drug-related advisory committee meeting in nine months.
The FDA’s real-time clinical trial mechanism allows drug sponsors to transmit data immediately to the regulator through the cloud—a system that could “compress drug development timelines,” Jefferies analysts said.
Sanofi and Novartis kick off the heart of earnings season; Lilly strikes its fourth pact in as many weeks; Regeneron earns landmark approval for a gene therapy for a type of genetic deafness, and also strikes a White House deal; FDA asks Amgen to withdraw Tavneos and, separately, issues Commissioner’s National Priority Vouches to three unnamed psychedelics companies.
The FDA has renewed calls for Amgen’s Tavneos to be pulled from the market, saying it has discovered new evidence that study personnel doctored the results of the drug’s pivotal study in order to make it look effective.
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The FDA is signaling change, but actual success depends on more than simply bringing in a new leader at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research; it requires accountability, transparency and consistent action.
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