Consumer

Slow adoption of alternatives to animal testing in the current decentralized regulatory framework.

The Washington State Department of Ecology will try to work with companies that violate the Toxic Free Cosmetics Act, rather than reflexively imposing the $5,000-per-violation fine for first-time offenders, says the law’s implementation planner. She noted financial assistance is available for small businesses, as well as incentives for companies adopting measures “beyond compliance.”

This week, J&J announced that it was buying heart failure device firm V-Wave; Procept got the FDA’s OK on a clinical trial of its Aquablation treatment for prostate cancer; and CMS began to consider Medicare reimbursement of Abbott’s TriClip tricuspid repair device.

Requests for “enforcement actions are not within the scope of FDA’s citizen petition procedures,” CDER says, rejecting petition dosing device firm Parenteral Technologies submitted as it prepares for workshop on Pediatric Research Equity Act requirements for OTC NDA sponsors.

Control of Sanofi Consumer Healthcare – recently rebranded as Opella – may soon pass to US private-equity firm CD&R but the French firm looks set to retain a substantial stake in a business which has some big Rx-to-OTC switches in the pipeline.

Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act planner Shari Franjevic acknowledges the Washington State Department of Ecology is authorized to use enforcement discretion regarding the new law’s 1ppm limit on trace lead in cosmetic products, effective 1 January 2025, or raise the ceiling via rulemaking. But it does not seem inclined to do either based on data known to the department at present. 

FDA grants de novo authorization to Healgen Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test, making it the first OTC flu test to be cleared outside the emergency use pathway.

CRN/Radicle Trailblazing Woman Award to ChromaDex’s Yasmeen Nkrumah-Elie; Nourish’s TV ad campaign features US soccer star Alex Morgan; Vitamin Shoppe BodyTech Elite Altered Strength line sponsors Team Red, White & Blues; contract pharma/consumer health product development firm LabConnect appoints Wesley Wheeler CEO; Avanos’ Game Ready is “Recovery Partner” of NFL’s Nick Bosa; Akita adds Robert Hanson to advisory board; and BODi has wrestler as brand ambassador

Bayer adds dry eye treatment to its Bepanthen skin care range; Stada launches special edition Elotrans supplement for Eintracht Frankfurt fans; Hermes offers chewable magnesium supplement; and Klosterfrau introduces Oyono Night extension to help troubled sleepers maintain their immunity.

UK pharma also reaches agreement in principle, subject to DoJ approval, to pay $70m to resolve a whistleblower complaint filed by Valisure, the testing lab which in 2019 raised concerns about a potential link between the use of drugs containing ranitidine, a histamine-2 blocker, and cancer.