FDA

The FDA struck an upbeat tone during its annual Generic Drugs Forum despite an unprecedented period of cutbacks and disruptions and reiterated a desire to continue meeting user fee goals.

The Republic of Ireland’s record in life sciences is impressive. Decades of investment, education and training have been major winners for the country’s successful economy. But its success is drawing unwanted attention from the US. Trump wants “to have that.”

Dyes and colors which FDA says industries agree should no longer be used aren’t unsafe and are currently used only with the agency’s approval, industry stakeholders say. Center for Science in the Public Interest says the dyes are used “in tens of thousands of foods and beverages that are commonly consumed here in the United States.”

Urologists at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and Abu Dhabi collaborated successfully to perform the first transcontinental robotic-assisted focal therapy for prostate cancer using EDAP’s Focal One HIFU robotic system. The procedure served as proof of concept for future teleprocedures. EDAP’s CEO Ryan Rhodes told Medtech Insight other hospitals are also showing interest in this type of collaboration.

Lowell Zeta, a senior counselor at the FDA from 2020 to 2021, returns as deputy commissioner for strategic initiatives. The agency also names a new acting CIO and acting CVM director, but OGD's Ted Sherwood and OPDP's Catherine Gray retired.

The elimination of the policy division at the Office of Generic Drugs, tariffs, the Section 232 investigation, and a new executive order to promote lower drug prices seem to both cause and purport to solve the same problem: supply chain disruption.

HHS Secretary Kennedy commends food companies for cooperating, but also says, “We have them on the run now and we are going to win this battle. And four years from now, we're going to have most of these products off the market.”

Biolinq plans to use the proceeds of its new venture funding to support US FDA de novo review, automation engineering and commercialization efforts with partners, CEO Rich Yang told Medtech Insight.

Celltrion’s adalimumab biosimilar was crowned as interchangeable by the FDA, at a time when the future of the designation is unknown.

In discussing FDA’s adverse event monitoring, Makary also seemed to falsely imply the agency did not fully investigate the myocarditis signal with COVID-19 vaccines.