North America

United States


EMA: Regulatory Decisions On Pediatric Cancer Drugs ‘Cannot Happen In Isolation’

Stakeholders must work together to “identify the most promising products based on evidence” to treat childhood cancers, as drugs developed for adults do not always work, the scientific officer for the pediatric medicines office at the European Medicines Agency says.

US FDA’s Drug Center Losing Shortages, Controlled Substance Leadership With Throckmorton Retirement

 

Throckmorton is known for enhancing the FDA’s drug shortage work by building bridges between the compliance and quality teams, as well as opioid oversight.

Skinny Label Limits: Supreme Court Denies Norwich Bid For US Xifaxan Reprieve

 
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Removing the patent-protected indication from the label of Norwich Pharmaceuticals's proposed generic for Xifaxan did not convince the US Supreme Court to hear its petition to review a case from Bausch Health that blocked approval until 2029.

US FDA Biosimilar Standards Likely Sealed Interchangeability Designation’s Fate

 

When the agency decided biosimilarity standards would be high, it likely ensured the interchangeability designation eventually would become unnecessary.

Canada


ACCESS Consortium Exploring Clinical Trials Collaboration & Reliance, Says UK MHRA

 

The UK’s drug regulator, the MHRA, is exploring new opportunities to work closer with its counterparts from Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland under the ACCESS Consortium group, with a focus on pre-submission scientific advice.

England Lags Behind Eight European Countries On Innovative Drug Availability

 

In this third article of a series on new drug reimbursement recommendations by the HTA body NICE, the Pink Sheet finds that fewer innovative medicines are reimbursed in England than in eight other European nations.

Canada Expands Expedited Reimbursement Mechanism To Include All New Medicines

 

The rolling reimbursement reviews that Canada’s Drug Agency introduced as a pilot scheme to speed up patient access to COVID-19 products can now be used for any drug application. The move to open up the mechanism follows prompts by industry.

Enhertu Snub From England’s NICE Not ‘In Line’ With Other Countries

 

England’s NICE has “misclassified” HER2-low metastatic breast cancer as a medium severity disease, say AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, the co-developers of Enhertu. NICE said it would consider a rapid re-appraisal if the companies offered a “fair price” for the drug.