The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working with several different data and research companies to further its understanding of how real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) can help to inform its regulatory decision making. One such company that has signed an RWE research collaboration with FDA is COTA, Inc., which is working on a project related to replicating a breast cancer study. Andrew Norden, chief medical officer of COTA, told Focus ...

As part of a push to reduce administrative burdens, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday finalized guidance on an optional streamlined submission process for determining the risk of an investigational in vitro diagnostic (IVD) in a clinical trial where an investigational IVD is being co-developed with an oncology investigational drug. The submission process, first proposed in draft guidance in April 2018 , is meant to help sponsors determine if an IVD...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday warned that breast cancer drugs, Ibrance (palbociclib) from Pfizer, Novartis' Kisqali (ribociclib) and Lilly's Verzenio (abemaciclib) may cause rare but severe inflammation of the lungs that could lead to death. “We have approved new warnings about this risk to the prescribing information and Patient Package Insert for the entire class of these cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitor medicines. The overall bene...

As television ads for cancer drugs pose the question, “Who wouldn’t want a chance to live longer?” or present statements like: “Living longer is possible,” the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) is trying to figure out if consumers can understand these drugs’ specific and often complicated indications supported by different types of endpoints. And now drugmakers Novartis, Merck and Eli Lilly are seeking modifications to ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday released draft guidance to help sponsors establish the effectiveness and safety of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues for treating advanced prostate cancer.   GnRH agonists and antagonists are a mainstay for treating patients with prostate cancer, FDA says, noting that it is one of the most common forms of cancer in American men.   “New drug applications for GnRH analogues typically rely, in part, ...

In a move that may become more common as the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) comfort with real-world data (RWD) increases, FDA on Thursday approved a new indication for Pfizer’s Ibrance (palbociclib) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant to include men with certain types of metastatic breast cancer. The approval is based on RWD from electronic health records and postmarketing reports of Ibrance in male patients sourced from three databases: I...

Swissmedic said Monday that based on the currently available information, the association Swiss Plastic Surgery recommends using smooth implants rather than textured implants where permitted by the clinical situation. France’s National Agency of Medicine and Health Products (ANSM) echoed that recommendation after observing most known breast implant associated-anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) cases in patients with textured breast implants. But the committee doe...

Drugmakers and industry groups are calling on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to hold off on finalizing a draft guidance until the International Council on Harmonisation (ICH) finalizes its own guidance on the topic of reproductive toxicity testing for oncology drugs. Comments were released last week on the FDA draft guidance from late September. Industry group PhRMA and Merck both called on FDA to ensure consistency between the draft guidance and relevant I...

The topic of cancer drug labels and how they can be updated more quickly, as well as how the labeling system needs to be reformed was front and center at several panels at the Friends of Cancer Research's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Janet Woodcock, director of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), noted her agency has been working on the issue of label updates for a number of years, particul...

As more cancer drugs are approved and prices continue to rise, questions have circulated on whether these drugs are extending patient survival or improving quality of life (QoL). A research article published in the BMJ last week reviewed the approval of drugs by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from 2009 to 2013 and noted that most drugs entered the market without evidence of survival benefits or QoL. "When there were survival gains over existing treatment o...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday finalized its 2015 draft guidance on the types of studies necessary to establish the performance characteristics of diagnostics used to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) when screening for cervical cancer. Background HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer, with fourteen genotypes of the virus considered to be carcinogenic or high-risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control, cervical cancer was the leading...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia whose tumors express the CD33 antigen (CD33-positive AML) and for patients aged two years and older with CD33-positive AML who have experienced a relapse or who have not responded to initial treatment.  In 2010, Pfizer voluntarily withdrew the treatment, 10 years after it won accelerated approval, wh...