United States
The FDA employees with reduction-in-force notice rescissions include some who work on user fee negotiations, but staff still subject to RIFs will not officially separate from the agency this week due to ongoing legal challenges.
Upcoming FDA user fee goal dates include novel products from a busy lung cancer pipeline, a single-dose passive immunization against RSV for infants, what could be the first oral HAE acute treatment, and a first-in-class HAE preventive antibody.
For the Trump Administration, the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs for obesity have become a poster child for the disparity between US and foreign prices.
Pink Sheet reporter and editors consider the issues that could emerge during upcoming private FDA forums with pharma CEOs, as well as the impact of the surprising move by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to limit the CDC recommendation for annual COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
Bridget Dooling, a law school professor who reviewed draft regulations from the FDA and other agencies as an OMB attorney, said prior federal court decisions suggest judges typically defer to agency decisions based in science.
The new CBER director, once best known in the pharma world for criticizing accelerated approval, committed to expediting cancer drugs with surrogate endpoints.
The agency said it will consider knee extensor muscle strength as a potential intermediate clinical endpoint to support accelerated approval, but Stealth CEO Reenie McCarthy said announcing it via complete response letter is confusing and inefficient.
The UK regulator’s draft guideline on the use of external control arms based on real-world data reflects concepts similar to those outlined by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Enrollment in the new Medicare Prescription Payment Plan was lower than expected in the first year and well below CMS expectations, and invoicing data indicates members are slow to pay.
The first 100 days of the Trump Administration were notable for an extraordinary decline in the number of public meetings hosted by the US Food and Drug Administration. But the schedule changed quickly.
The new FTC chair addressed concerns that staffing cuts will undermine the commission’s commitment to pharmacy benefit manager oversight.
By stepping into the role of the Centers for Disease Control and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is causing further confusion and uncertainty about vaccine policy, experts say.
President Trump’s new Executive Order on drug pricing reprises several policy themes from his first administration, including giving the FDA many tasks intended to increase competition in the marketplace.
FDA Commissioner Martin Makary will give industry a new avenue for access and influence despite his and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims that the pharma-FDA relationship is too cozy.
Germany’s federal health care decision-making body, the G-BA, tells the Pink Sheet that German drug prices are fair and speculation of price rises in the market due to the US MFN policy is fear mongering.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said a policy that would remove the tax write-off for pharma advertising expenses would be coming in a few weeks.
Legislation prohibiting work with certain Chinese biopharma firms will be reintroduced soon, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters said. And it will not be the only bill tied to international biotech competition and security concerns that will be considered.
Pink Sheet reporter and editors discuss the new clinical trial requirements that the FDA announced for COVID-19 vaccines, the updated label for Novavax’s newly approved COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine-related events that were part of a busy week for policy in the sector.
The FDA’s advisors split on whether to update COVID-19 vaccines for the fall. The agency refused to discuss the impact of the new vaccine framework on availability.
Webpages, a healthcare professional pamphlet and a medical conference exhibit booth panel make unsupported comparative superiority claims about generic torsemide products and misrepresent risks, the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion says in its first warning letter of 2025.