This article provides an overview of the Chinese regulations and guidance documents for cell and gene therapy products (CGTPs).   Introduction As early as 1993, Chinese regulators provided guidance on clinical research for somatic cell and gene therapy. More regulations, laws, and guidances have since been published, either specific to, or including, CGTPs. The two most recent publications have been draft guidelines for clinical studies for immune cell therapy produc...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday finalized guidance making recommendations to sponsors encouraging them to enroll male patients in breast cancer clinical trials.   The final guidance comes one year after the agency issued the draft version for comment and includes only minor changes from the previous iteration. (RELATED: FDA calls for men to be enrolled in breast cancer trials , 26 August 2019) .   As in the draft version, FDA explains that ...

Feature articles during July focused on global regulatory strategy for cell and gene therapy, with articles on US and EU regulations and guidances and the development and manufacture of the therapies. Also included were articles on recasting the corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process as a continuous improvement process, a military-civilian perspective on real-world evidence (RWE) to support regulatory decision making, and regulatory reporting in multinational tria...

This article explains some of the terminology relating to advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), including gene and cell-based therapies, tissue-engineered products, and combined ATMPs. The author explains the key EU regulations and guidance documents for each therapy type and discusses marketing authorization, accelerated regulatory pathways, and market access. He advises companies navigating this complex regulatory environment to engage with the regulatory agencies...

Speaking at a session on cell and gene therapies at BIO Digital on Monday, a top US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official discussed the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the agency’s work related to cell and gene therapies.   “Before the pandemic, we were seeing a huge escalation in the workload that we have to make adjustments for,” said Wilson Bryan, director of the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies at the Center for Biologics Eval...

Following a series of recalls for the heartburn drug Zantac and other ranitidine drugs due to a genotoxic impurity, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday that the levels of the impurity in ranitidine drugs for heartburn and also in the chemically similar ulcer drug nizatidine “are similar to the levels you would expect to be exposed to if you ate common foods like grilled or smoked meats.” The agency also published a table of the ranitidine and nizatidin...

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 ...

A bipartisan group of representatives on the Energy & Commerce (E&C) committee sent a letter to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Ned Sharpless on Thursday seeking more details on the agency’s plan to slow the proliferation of stem cell clinics. While noting that FDA has agreed to exercise enforcement discretion for 36 months in a recent guidance, the letter also explains how CBER Director Peter Marks said in April that industry has shown “mo...

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, ...