The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has told Intarcia Therapeutics it is proposing to refuse a new drug application for their type 2 diabetes drug-device combination product ITCA 650.   In a notice posted in the Federal Register , the agency said Intarcia can request a hearing from FDA on the proposal, but if the hearing is waived or it is determined the reason for the hearing isn’t sufficient, FDA will move forwa...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US When Will the Delta Surge End? ( NYT ) Why can’t America fix its Covid-19 testing problems? ( VOX ) Vaccination Rates Rose In August As COVID Cases Surged Due To The Delta Variant ( NPR ) First vaccination doses up 17 percent since Pfizer approval: analysis ( The Hill ) Companies eye financial penalties for unvaccinated workers ( The Hill ) America has waste...

  Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Percentage of Americans who say they won't get vaccinated drops to record low in new poll ( The Hill ) US demand for COVID-19 antibody treatments rising fast ( PMLive ) CDC Staff Floats 'Risk-Based Approach' to Potential Booster Doses ( MPT ) CDC panel unanimously endorses full approval of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for people 16 and older ( CNBC ) Nearly 1 m...

  Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US COVID-19 Deaths And Hospitalizations Continue To Rise In The U.S. ( NPR ) HHS Lifts Pause on Lilly's Monoclonal Antibody Combo, Sort Of ( MPT ) U.S. CDC advisers vote in favor of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine ( Reuters ) Baxter in late-stage talks to buy Hillrom for about $10B: WSJ ( MedTech Dive ) Reimbursement begins slowly for Biogen’s expensive Alzheimer’s ...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the EU’s Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) have issued an ambitious workplan for a joint steering group to tackle issues related to big data in healthcare and medicines development.   The steering group’s 2021-2023 work plan, adopted in June and published Friday, “aims to increase the utility of big data in regulation, from data quality through study methods to assessment and decision-making,” according to EMA’s big data webpage...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US FDA warns of pacemaker-iPhone interference ( Healthcare IT News ) Opinion: Expanding the domestic public health supply chain is a matter of national security ( STAT ) BD gets emergency FDA nod for smartphone-enabled COVID-19 antigen test ( MedTech Dive ) Ivermectin Scripts, Poison Center Calls Boom During Delta Surge ( MPT ) U.S. COVID-19 tests again in short...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admonished Japanese pharmaceutical manufacturer Toyoba Co. in a recent warning letter for taking a lax approach to fixing microbiological contamination issues and resolving data integrity problems that included falsification of data.   The firm’s failure to report accurate data “compromised the sterility assurance of drug products released from the facility and may have increased risks to patients,” wrote FDA in the 19 August...

Trade associations in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields have weighed in on the performance goals FDA has outlined for the upcoming reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA VII), taking a generally favorable view of planned initiatives and areas of focus.   “The PDUFA VII agreement released today is an important step forward to continue to support patient safety, maintain the FDA’s high standards of independent regulatory review and promote...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Six U.S. states do not join $26B opioid settlements with distributors, J&J ( Reuters ) ‘We Sent a Terrible Message’: Scientists Say Biden Jumped the Gun With Vaccine Booster Plan ( KHN ) Fauci says he hopes U.S. will have ‘some good control’ over Covid by spring 2022 ( CNBC ) American Medical Association calls for public, private sectors to mandate vaccines ( ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday released the commitment letter outlining performance goals and procedures for the upcoming reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments for FYs 2023-2027 (PDUFA VII).   The agency also announced a public meeting on the reauthorization, scheduled for the afternoon of 28 September. Registration for the meeting, which will be held virtually, is free.   Many of the concepts and programs the agency di...

A new report from the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) shows a small drop overall in drug manufacturing sites and a shift toward pandemic-related priorities in FY 2020.   The OPQ report on the state of pharmaceutical quality for FY 2020 notes that drug manufacturing sites included in FDA’s site catalog declined by just over 1% in FY 2020 to 4,221. Medical gas manufacturers are excluded from this figure, as are the crop ...

A newly finalized guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) helps manufacturers understand how to use near-infrared (NIR)-based analyses in evaluating drug attributes.   The guidance finalizes a draft issued in 2015, updating it to better reflect how NIR has been used in the years since the draft was issued, and to incorporate some advances in NIR technology. Considerations for managing NIR over the product life cycle were also added to the finalized guid...