The goal of the Office of New Drugs’ initiative is to develop and execute, in a cross-disciplinary manner, strategic plans to address substantive development hurdles in specific therapeutic areas. This approach already has been used for non-healing, chronic wounds and is being expanded to neurodegenerative and rare diseases, OND’s Peter Stein tells the Pink Sheet.

The EU’s conditional approval of four COVID-19 vaccines and its decision to extend the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty to a younger age group were challenged in the court last year but the cases were declared inadmissible.

The new regulation on cross-border threats to health is the final part of the European Health Union, along with strengthened roles for the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Its aim is to ensure collective EU action on preparedness, surveillance, risk assessment, and early warning and response in the event of health emergencies.

Language of the amendment cleared by appropriators in response to the Russian war against Ukraine in FDA’s fiscal year funding bill is vague, making impact of the funding ban on industry unclear. Democrats supported the amendment but said they wanted to continue to work on language to avoid “unintended consequences.” FDA would get a 10% bump in non-user fee funds under the bill.

Proposed guidance revision adds nuance to manufacturing facility separation expectations for beta-lactam compounds that pose less risk of anaphylaxis than penicillin and related antibiotics.

Five-year plan includes multi-phased approach to ALS at the same time that Amylyx’s AMX0035 is pending review with a late September decision deadline; action plan’s mid-term priorities for FY 2023-2024 include a cell and gene therapies safety project.

Discrete packaging for authorized dose in 6-11 year-olds is not yet available, so vaccination providers have to use product from a vial labeled for ‘booster doses only’ in adults. ACIP members unanimously endorse use of the mRNA vaccine in individuals ages 6-17 years but urge manufacturers to move away from relying on color to differentiate formulations.

Immunocore’s advanced uveal melanoma drug, Kimmtrak, and Hansa’s Idefirix for increasing the chances of a successful kidney transplant are among the latest treatments that NICE has appraised regarding their cost-effectiveness.

More should be done to incentivize comparative clinical trials so as to allow better decisions on drug pricing to be taken, said Austria’s representative at a recent meeting of EU health ministers.

The goal of the Office of New Drugs’ initiative is to develop and execute, in a cross-disciplinary manner, strategic plans to address substantive development hurdles in specific therapeutic areas. This approach already has been used for non-healing, chronic wounds and is being expanded to neurodegenerative and rare diseases, OND’s Peter Stein tells the Pink Sheet.

The US FDA commissioner said increased use of expedited approval pathways will help spur clinical research system reform.

China’s Center for Drug Evaluation has introduced a risk-based process to initiate on-site inspections related to drug registrations. It is hoped the novel system will suit the current capacity of auditor teams against a backdrop of an ongoing spike in product approval applications in the country since 2019.

News and views from day four of the BIO annual meeting include a fireside chat with FDA commissioner Robert Califf, gene therapy insights, and pharma efforts to provide cancer medicines in lower income countries.

News and views from day 3 of the BIO annual meeting include business development insights, such as Sanofi's global head of BD Alban De La Sabliere's promise that big pharma has no hidden agenda and an AbbVie BD exec's observations that lower company valuations have not led to lower asking prices. Also, BIO chairman and Nkarta CEO Paul Hastings' optimism that biotech will rebound and Venus Williams' Sjogren's disease story draws a crowd.

Experts suggest US FTC and DOJ retrospectively assess whether a merger gives companies increased leverage with PBMs and consider how it will impact vulnerable communities. Rutger’s Michael Carrier says there should be a presumption against mergers between two large firms.

Proposed guidance revision adds nuance to manufacturing facility separation expectations for beta-lactam compounds that pose less risk of anaphylaxis than penicillin and related antibiotics.

The AMR Industry Alliance has formalized its years-old Common Antibiotic Manufacturing Framework by publishing an antibiotic manufacturing standard, in what it terms a “groundbreaking step” in the drive for responsible manufacturing.