A global regulatory group is mapping out a strategy for regulatory alignment as countries around the world plan their responses in the face of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.   The International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) met on the first two days of December to discuss a host of regulatory challenges. Thirteen World Health Organization (WHO) and EC officials joined representatives from ICMRA’s 24 health aut...

Policymakers looking to rein in Medicare spending should look beyond the lens of the accelerated approval pathway, as drugs that exclusively fall under this indication make up a small percentage of overall Medicare spending, according to a recent research letter written by Benjamin N. Rome, of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) research group at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and colleagues.   “Medicare is spending more an...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) has announced its science and research priorities for fiscal year (FY) 2022 to spur the development of complex generic drugs. The priorities were prompted by public feedback the agency received at a public workshop earlier this year.   The agency also announced the availability of fellowships and funding for research activities that are aligned with these priorities.   The workshop was held i...

A key microbial genome database is being updated and expanded through a public-private partnership, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works with a health data company and an academic institution to build out the FDA-ARGOS database.   In partnership with George Washington University and Embleema, which maintains a bioinformatics platform, FDA  is conducting a year-long, $2 million project to “further improve the utility of the FDA-ARGOS database as a key tool...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released draft guidance on the use of registries in regulatory decision making, adding another piece to the puzzle of how the agency will consider real-world data (RWD) when considering a new drug indication or assessing post-approval requirements.   The draft guidance , which was published Monday, outlines considerations for sponsors and stakeholders when proposing to design a registry or use an existing registry to support r...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Biden says omicron variant is cause for concern but not panic ( NPR ) CDC Statement on B.1.1.529 (Omicron variant) ( CDC ) Pfizer boosts Paxlovid manufacturing capacity as Merck’s rival COVID pill hits surprise efficacy setback ( Fierce ) Opinion: Becerra needs to open up to the press ( AHCJ ) Opinion: Will Moderna Ever Learn to Share? ( MedPage Today ) Who ...

Dose selection is a significant challenge in pediatric drug development; commonly used renal function equations can overestimate glomerular filtration rates and result in inaccurate predictions of drug elimination.   In a Regulatory Science in Action article , scientists from the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) shared findings about how adjustments to the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations could help ...

Welcome to our weekly digest of regulatory news from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), legislative updates, and other news updates we think you’ll find useful — and interesting. This week saw COVID-19 vaccine and therapy updates, the unveiling of Cures 2.0 , and lots of device updates. As usual, we welcome feedback at news@raps.org .    Friday morning, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced an expansion of the emergency use authorizations (EUA...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t been notifying most clinical trial sponsors they are in violation of reporting requirements.   That’s according to results of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) investigation by Reshma Ramachandran, of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, and colleagues in a recent Viewpoint published in JAMA .   In January 2017, a final rule issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) determining ClinicalTrials.go...

Welcome to Week 2 of This Week at FDA . We've again gathered the week’s news from (and about) FDA. Each Friday, we'll be covering agency activities and enforcement actions, filings in the  Federal Register , new guidances, legislative updates, and anything else we come across – all in one place. We hope you will find it to be your one-stop shop for FDA updates. What do you think? We’d be happy to hear your feedback at news@raps.org. The House Committee on Oversight ...

We're trying something new at Regulatory Focus , with the goal of gathering the week’s news from (and about) FDA. We'll be covering agency activities and enforcement actions, filings in the Federal Register , new guidances, legislative updates, and anything else we come across – all in one place. We hope you will find it to be your one-stop-shop for FDA updates. What do you think? We’d be happy to hear your feedback at news@raps.org. News from this week One of t...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released draft guidance for industry that outlines the agency’s thinking on how a sponsor should submit drug and biological product study data from real-world data (RWD) sources.   FDA acknowledged that standardizing data for use as RWD is fraught with such challenges as inconsistent formats and sources, different source data captured by region, differences in terminology and exchange, a wide range of methods to build datas...