Global

Changes to an ICH guideline could help drug companies that are being deluged with post-approval safety information to cut down on noisy, low-value data.

The EMA is assessing the Janssen vaccine as a booster, and Switzerland is evaluating the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in younger age groups. The WHO has announced the first voluntary global license on a COVID-19 antibody detection technology.

Pharmaceutical companies are ratcheting up voluntary efforts to control discharges of antimicrobials from their plants and those of their active pharmaceutical ingredient suppliers so they won’t contribute to antimicrobial resistance. But will it be enough to fend off regulation in countries like India?

An agreement allowing the production and distribution of the US firm’s new protease inhibitor in 95 countries has been welcomed by the Medicines Patent Pool. But some medicines access advocates are not so sure it’s necessarily a good deal for lower-income countries.

Concerns raised around defining ICH Q12 “established conditions” for post-approval changes and potential role of prior knowledge for legacy products discussed in the context of generic drug applications; likely residual lack of harmonization explored.

A senior AstraZeneca executive gives a candid account of how the company recovered from the unexpected deluge of safety reports for its COVID-19 vaccine.

The US FDA has rejected an emergency use authorization application for NRx Pharmaceuticals’ Zyesami (aviptadil) for use in COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure. The UK has revamped its emergency delivery service for drugs that experience shortages as a result of the pandemic and other factors.

Stay up to date on regulatory guidelines from around the world with the Pink Sheet's Guidance Tracker. The complete Global Pharma Guidance Tracker, with sortable and searchable listings going back to 2014, is available online.

A range of steps have been taken to allow the scale-up of manufacturing of COVID-19 products during the pandemic. Now industry says the use of these flexibilities needs to be expanded to enhance the current pandemic response and rapidly increase product supply.

Pharma industry critics herald the agreement for allowing many manufacturers around the world to make the COVID-19 therapeutic and for its transparency. If Merck can do it, they ask, why can’t other companies?

Draft tracks ICH document, which touts the ‘efficiency, agility, and flexibility’ of continuous manufacturing while acknowledging the challenges around the developing practice, ‘particularly for products intended for commercialization internationally.’

The International Council for Harmonisation has delivered the first of a two-part project to modernize the international good clinical practice framework by finalizing changes to its primary efficacy guideline.