Vanda Pharmaceuticals took the FDA to court three separate times this year as it struggles to win over regulators with its sleep and chronic digestive disorder drugs. Now, the company has agreed to drop $11.5 million to settle claims that it illegally promoted the sleep drug and one other off-label.

A suite of investors filed a class action suit against Vanda back in 2019, alleging that the company promoted unapproved uses for its two commercial drugs Fanapt and Hetlioz, the former of which treats schizophrenia in adults and the latter of which is cleared for sleep disruptions in those with Smith-Magenis syndrome and Non-24, a circadian rhythm disorder common in blind patients.

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APAC is the fastest growing region globally for cell & gene therapy trials representing more than a third of all cell & gene studies globally, with China leading in the region. 

APAC is the leading location globally for CAR-T trials with China attracting ~60% of all CAR-T trials globally between 2015-2022. The number of CAR-T trials initiated by Western companies has rapidly increased in recent years (current CAGR of about 60%), with multiple targets being explored including CD19, CD20, CD22, BCMA, CD30, CD123, CD33, CD38, and CD138.

Right around the beginning of the year, we got a close-up look at what happens after a boom ripples through biotech. The crash of life sciences stocks in Q1 was heard around the world.

In the months since, we’ve seen the natural Darwinian down cycle take effect. Reverse mergers made a comeback, with more burned out shells to go public at a time IPOs and road shows are out of favor. And no doubt some of the more recent arrivals on the investing side of the business are finding greener pastures.

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Back in April, Amgen said it was encouraged by the solicitor general’s anticipated review of its Supreme Court petition to rehear a Repatha patent case. They’re likely much less optimistic about the outcome now.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a recent 27-page brief that Amgen’s arguments “lack merit and further review is not warranted.”

The case traces back to a suit filed in 2014 against Sanofi and Regeneron’s Praluent, which ended up beating Amgen’s PCSK9 blockbuster Repatha to market by a month just a year later.

The EMA is putting EU member states on alert over the shortage of two drugs that counter heart attacks due to an uptick in demand.

On Friday, the EMA sent out a warning that two Boehringer Ingelheim drugs are experiencing a shortage: Actilyse and Metalyse. The drugs are used as emergency treatments for adults experiencing acute myocardial infarction, or a heart attack, by dissolving blood clots that have formed in the blood vessels.

At Klick Health’s first Ideas Exchange conference with biotech and pharma industry insiders since before the pandemic began, it was no surprise many conversations included Covid topics. Yet while vaccines and treatments were discussed, so too were the effects on drug development, federal responses, health inequities — and what to do now and next.

George Yancopoulos, chief scientist and cofounder of Regeneron, opened the conference responding to a question from Acorda CEO Ron Cohen about the spotlight on the industry during Covid and some of the “flak” biopharma has taken in the past.

FDA’s outside advisors voted in favor of Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ RBX2660, an experimental poop-based drug implant that the company says would be the first microbiota-based live biotherapeutic to receive an FDA green light.

That was a point repeatedly discussed during the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, meeting Thursday when evaluating Ferring’s fecal microbiota transplant, or FMT, for reducing the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection in adults who have received antibiotics. Multiple members brought up the need for a regulated product amid a landscape of unregulated FMTs already happening in clinical care.

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A Cipla drug manufacturing site in India has once again landed in the crosshairs of FDA inspectors.

The facility in question is Cipla’s drug manufacturing facility in the village of Verna, in the state of Goa in India’s southwest. In a sign that foreign inspections might ramp up again, the FDA’s visit from Aug. 16 to Aug. 22 uncovered six observations.

The 11-page report noted that environmental monitoring at the site did not properly ensure that microbial contaminants were not making any impact in the aseptic filling areas. It also found that procedures meant to stop microbial contamination were not adequately conducted in aseptic areas of the facility.

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Klick Health co-founder and CEO Leerom Segal sat down for a one-on-one with former President Barack Obama in New York on Thursday night for a wide-ranging discussion about his time in office and current political divisiveness in the US, but also on some health and science topics.

Segal, for instance, asked the former chief executive about the decline of trust in science — that in 2022 “vaccines are still controversial and maybe even political”— and how it can be reinstated.

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Weeks after announcing the spinoff of generics arm Sandoz, Vas Narasimhan paints a picture of the new, slimmer Novartis — with a “US-first mindset,” he said at an investor event on Thursday.

The CEO unveiled ambitious plans to become a top-five player in the US by 2027 at Novartis’ “Meet the Management” event in Basel, Switzerland, which means ramping up clinical trials in the states and “building capability and talent, among other things.” The company’s also shooting for a top-three ranking in China.

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Bioscience & Technology Business Center The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas

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