Industry News

The agency released guidance for industry regarding the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The company was cited for cGMP violations at its Irvine, California facility.

The agency met with the representatives of the East African Community to discuss the creation of a networking agency.

In Lazard's Global Healthcare Leaders 2017 survey, most respondents said pricing and reimbursement were the most significant challenge, but nearly half of the pharma executives who responded see value-based pricing as having the greatest impact on the business, potentially even more than scientific breakthroughs.

CBER is moving forward with the development and approval of regenerative medicine advanced therapies.

FDA’s new commissioner asks staff for suggestions for fighting the opioid crisis.

The agency has given a green light to a new system for collecting and monitoring suspected adverse reactions.

A recent survey suggests that 36% of pharmaceutical companies and contract development and manufacturing companies have not started working on serialization, and that those who are working on it are focusing on basic compliance rather than potential long-term business benefits.

More stringent R&D investment requirements for PhRMA membership reduces the association ranks by 22 associate and member companies.

CPhI Worldwide announced new additions to its 2017 advisory board.

The company is expanding their April 2017 voluntary recall of phenobarbital tablets.

The agency released its report on pilot project to involve patients in the assessment of medicines.

FDA sent a warning letter to Pharmaceutic Labs, LLC for deficiencies in producing sterile drugs.

User fee reauthorizations, a hiring freeze, and opioid epidemic await the new FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

EMA and the European Commission released a biosimilars information guide for health professionals during the EC’s biosimilars conference.

The program aims to make biosimilars for the treatment of cancer more widely available in middle- and low-income countries.

The agency sent a warning letter to Sal Pharma for not disclosing information about API manufacturers to customers.

The agency has issued more than 90 warning letters over the past 10 years to companies selling fraudulent cancer treatments.

On April 28, 2017, the European Medicines Agency announced that it met with members of the heads of the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of the member states of the European Union to discuss the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU (Brexit) and how the agency and the member states will handle the evaluation and monitoring of drugs going forward.

April 24–30, 2017 is European Immunization Week in Europe, and in a statement on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) website dated April 25, 2017, Executive Director Guido Rasi stressed the importance of vaccinations in preventing and controlling disease. Rasi acknowledged that fear created from incorrect information presented by unreliable sources has created a lack of trust in vaccines. But he highlighted that Europe monitors and records information on the safety of medicines, including vaccines.

On April 24, 2017, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and a group of executives from several big pharma companies composed an open letter to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) regarding its relocation.

A new study from the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that pairing the antidepressant amitriptyline with drugs designed to treat central nervous system diseases, enhances drug delivery to the brain by inhibiting the blood-brain barrier in rats. The blood-brain barrier serves as a natural, protective boundary, preventing most drugs from entering the brain. The research, performed in rats, appeared online April 27, 2017 in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

Companies believe that biologics and biosimilars would experience the fastest growth over the next year; there is also interest on increasing market penetration of generic drugs.

The dispute over who has the rights to key CRISPR-Cas9 patents continues. On April 12, 2017 the University of California, Berkeley, in conjunction with the University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, filed an appeal to overturn an earlier decision by the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

The agency issued its recommendation for the influenza virus strains European vaccine manufacturers should include for 2017.

The new guide offers guidance on how to ensure data and records are complete, consistent, secure, accurate, and available throughout their lifecycle.

The agency cited the company’s India facility for batch failures and data integrity problems.

The conference has partnered with Mercy Ships, a non-profit organization using hospital ships to deliver health care to developing nations.