The Senate Appropriations committee has completed its markup of the FY2022 budget for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), advancing by a 25-5 vote a bill that would hold the agency to a $200 million increase in its budget authority.   The bill exited the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for FDA funding on Monday with no objections to the Senate’s proposed 6% increase for the agency over FY2021 figures. (RELATED: Senate subcommittee advances FY2022 FDA f...

An initiative by the European Commission (EC) to boost the development of pediatric drugs and medicines for people with rare diseases has received stakeholder feedback that in many cases expresses concern with the proposed upending of the status quo.   A 60-day period of public consultation for the initiative’s roadmap closed at the end of July; in all, 112 comments were received from individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public authorities, medical socie...

A small Georgia pharmaceutical company has received a notice of noncompliance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for not registering clinical trial results in a central government registry, as required by federal law.   The 26 July letter is the second issued by FDA for noncompliance with federal research reporting requirements outlined in Section 801 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA). If results are not reported within on...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Pfizer sells $7.8 billion in Covid shots in the second quarter, raises 2021 guidance on vaccine sales ( CNBC ) AstraZeneca castoff draws $123M wager on CXCR2 antagonist as Arena lines up a buyout option ( Endpoints ) Opinion: US FDA Should Take Its Time With COVID Vaccine BLAs ( Pink Sheet ) Biden Is Considering A Vaccine Or Testing Mandate For Federal Workers...

An updated reflection paper from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) tackles how statistics should be used in drug development when a comparative assessment of quality attributes needs to be made.   The paper touches on issues that arise both in the development of small molecules and in work being done in the area of biosimilars, where tricky manufacturing challenges and mutable organic molecules make defining the concept of “similarity” a challenge.   EMA’s human ...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US How Biogen found a believer: At the FDA, a hard-nosed regulator was won over on controversial Alzheimer’s drug ( STAT ) AbbVie hits go on $1B re-upped Calico deal as the Google life science spin-out continues I-O, neuro push ( Fierce ) Biden wants to bolster the pharma supply chain. A major generic plant closing may make that harder ( STAT ) CDC to reverse ind...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US At the FDA’s urging, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are expanding their studies of children 5 to 11 ( NYT ) Bristol Myers withdraws Opdivo in liver cancer as fallout from FDA meeting continues ( Biopharma Dive ) Shelling out $5B+, PerkinElmer pays the big bucks for antibody and reagent player ( Endpoints ) House Democrats expand probe into political interference ...

The US Food and Drug Administration is seeking eight new members for its Patient Engagement Collaborative (PEC), a group charged with gaining meaningful patient input into medical product development and regulatory decision making.   The 16-member panel includes patients, caregivers, and advocates who serve for 2 to 3 years. The panel is a joint effort between FDA and the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative . Panel members are expected to participate in two to f...

The human medicines committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended two new medicines for approval during its July meeting; the committee also recommended four extensions of therapeutic indication and issued a negative opinion on one medicine.   Genzyme’s Nexviadyme (avalglucosidase alfa) was recommended by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to treat glycogen storage disease type II, also known as Pompe disease. Nexviadyme had receiv...

The European Commission (EC) has pruned the list of COVID-19-related research projects it plans to fund, announcing Thursday a short list of 11 projects that will receive €120 million in total.   Funding for the projects will come from Horizon Europe, a research and innovation program that launched in 2021 and is planned to sunset by 2027. The program supports “urgent research” into COVID-19 with a focus on the emerging threats of variants of SARS-CoV-2, according to...

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the paradox surrounding the inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in medical research. Even when these women are at higher risk for severe illness and hospitalization, they are unlikely to be included in clinical trials for medical products and vaccines. In a recent article, officials at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signaled their commitment to work with industry and other regulators to support the inclus...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US How an Unproven Alzheimer’s Drug Got Approved ( NYT ) States and Cities Near Tentative $26 Billion Deal in Opioids Cases ( NYT ) Drug distributors settle New York opioid claims for up to $1.18B  ( Reuters ) Pharma CEOs, lobbyists showered Democrat with cash after his attempt to torpedo Pelosi’s drug pricing bill ( STAT ) Advocates urge Biden to name patent of...