The last weeks of 2018 saw a flurry of submissions to the US FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, including at least four novel agents. Indeed, had the partial government shutdown not precluded further submissions, the end of the year might have turned into a downright blizzard.
Keeping Track: US FDA Receives Submissions Galore As Year Ends
A roundup of new applications submitted to FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

More from Product Reviews
The weight management drug, Mysimba, continues to demonstrate a positive benefit-risk balance but the data available are not sufficient to fully determine the cardiovascular safety beyond 12 months. Meanwhile, Currax this month announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study of Mysimba that followed patients for over 4.7 years and found no evidence of excess cardiovascular risk.
This is an update of recommendations from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on the authorization of new medicines in the EU, and updates on EU marketing authorization changes recommended by the CHMP.
Sanofi’s Dupixent, Amgen’s Uplizna, and Bristol’s Opdivo seek new indications, while J&J hopes to start a franchise with nipocalimab and Stealth’s day of reckoning approaches.
The European Medicines Agency has recommended five drugs for EU-wide approval , including Averoa’s Xoanacyl for concomitant hyperphosphatemia. Two companies have withdrawn their marketing authorization applications.
More from Pink Sheet
One CDRH employee said the cuts already are having a major effect on morale.
Mass FDA layoffs on 1 April were designed to spare product reviewers, but still touched many who are critical to the application review process or drug development, which could mean fewer treatments are brought to the US market first.
Pharmaceutical companies are being encouraged to reach out to NICE in relation to its HTA Innovation Lab, which provides a sandbox environment in which the health technology assessment body can test new methods of evaluating “innovative and disruptive” therapies.