The Asia-Pacific region, which inlcudes Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, has a significant number of clinical trials in advanced therapies, with China ranking second globally. Manufacturers in other countries in the region, such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore, have submitted marketing authorizations applications for advanced therapies and received approvals. Regulators recognize this emerging trend in dynamic resear...

In recent years, new cell and gene therapies have been developed and approved in a number of countries, including Japan. The Japanese government fully supports academia and the pharmaceutical industry in the research and development of these innovative therapies, and in 2019, revised the Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy, and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices to enact the conditional early approval system for accelerating the development and ...

Purveyors of unapproved cellular-derived treatments are about to find out what happens when the US Food and Drug Administration ends its period of enforcement discretion for these regenerative medicine products.   A three-year clock for enforcement discretion began when FDA announced its regenerative medicine policy framework in November 2017; the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a 6-month extension, announced the agency last summer. Time is now up, and no more extensions ...

This article discusses the scope and purpose of the special designation for regenerative medicine advanced therapies (RMAT) created by the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. The authors explain the benefits expected to be realized with RMAT and provide a tally of products receiving the special designation to date and a current count, by year, of products for which RMAT designation has been requested.   Introduction Section 3033 of the 21st Century Cures Act, titl...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday launched a new policy framework for regenerative medicine, building off a previous framework from 2005, as part of efforts to bring new cell, stem cell and tissue products to patients as efficiently as possible while managing the proliferation of unscrupulous actors hawking unproven therapies. FDA’s announcement included the release of two new draft guidance documents – one on ways to expedite approvals for regen...

In this interview with Regulatory Focus , Ted Slocomb and Michael Werner, two leaders from the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), provide insight into future challenges and opportunities for ensuring market access and value-based reimbursement for gene and cell therapies. Cell and gene therapies represent a new, transformative era in medicine. For many indications, these products offer the promise of durable - even potentially curative – treatments and in many c...

The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Monday the agency will advance a new framework to better regulate stem cell therapies this fall. "This comprehensive policy will establish clearer lines around when these regenerative medicine products have sufficient complexity to fall under the agency's current authority, and then define an efficient process for how these products should be evaluated for safety and effectiveness," Gottli...

This article provides insight into Conditional Approvals (CAs) and Conditional Marketing Approvals (CMAs) as developed across several jurisdictions to potentially provide earlier access to new medicines. The author explains the specifics regarding regulatory requirements for obtaining CAs in the European Union (EU), Japan and the US. Introduction Before a medicinal product for human use is authorized to enter the market, it must undergo extensive study to ensure its s...

Peter Marks, director of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) on Thursday said his office is equipped to support the development of cutting edge treatments, such as cell and gene therapies. Speaking at the Food and Drug Law Institute's annual conference, Marks said the 21st Century Cures Act added tools to FDA's regulatory arsenal, including the regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation to provi...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday offered one of its first Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designations to Humacyte’s investigational human acellular vessel (HAV) Humacyl. “Being one of the first companies to receive the Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy Designation from the FDA is an honor and a testament to the significant potential for Humacyl to address a great unmet medical need for patients who are undergoing dialysis,” Ca...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday unveiled a new designation category created as part of the 21st Century Cures Act to allow drugs to be eligible for designation as a regenerative advanced therapy (RAT). The stipulations for such a RAT designation include: “The drug is a regenerative medicine therapy, which is defined as a cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering product, human cell and tissue product, or any combination product using such the...

The Senate on Wednesday passed the 21st Century Cures Act by a vote of 94-5. President Barack Obama praised the bipartisan efforts and said he will sign the bill. The bill’s path to success, following the House’s positive vote last week, took a unique route, with the House also passing a previous iteration back in July 2015, and then the Senate trying to craft its own package of bills, which stalled and looked to be dead as recently as September. The wide-ranging, nea...