Trump 2.0

As differences emerged between FDA staff and senior political leaders over its COVID-19 safety review, CBER Director Vinay Prasad added an old colleague and critic of US COVID-19 policy to the center.

Former agency officials who now represent industry worry that a deregulatory bent could be driving the "Simple Reform" plan to merge all medical product and clinical research inspectorates and that the specialist expertise gained in the 2017 "Program Alignment" initiative will be reversed.

“Section viii cannot function as Congress intended,” if a Federal Circuit Court ruling stands, the US solicitor general argued in urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse the closely-watched Hikma Vascepa skinny-label case.

Industry representatives raised several concerns about an FDA proposal to charge additional fees to sponsors not conducting Phase I trials in the US, including that the idea could increase the burden of drug development overall.

At an expert panel overwhelmingly composed of people favoring expanded testosterone use and loosened safety warnings, career FDA staff suggested new clinical trials would be required to approve some of the changes.

The first approval under the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher, a re-introduction of domestic production of an antibiotic, took two months to clear, but the timeline will be more challenging for the three pending CNPV applications with efficacy claims.

Experts said the impact of the planned approval standard changes are difficult to assess given the potential for flexibility outlined in the JAMA article, as the FDA again eschews guidance and public comment in making new policy.

The agency wants to ensure orphan drug sponsors cannot benefit from fee exemptions while gaining approval of non-orphan indications.

The move is intended to allow incoming acting director Tracy Beth Høeg to learn from outgoing director Richard Pazdur before he retires.

After voting to change the recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine birth dose, the CDC Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices laid the groundwork for for changes to adjuvant policy.

Pink Sheet reporter and editors discuss the likely impacts of Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director Richard Pazdur’s retirement from the FDA and Tracy Beth Høeg becoming the center’s acting director.

At a CDC vaccine advisory committee criticized for “promoting an anti-vaccine agenda,” the new CDER director championed the committee’s plans and suggested the FDA would make more frequent vaccine label updates due to revised safety frameworks.