The US FDA has proposed changes to its nonproprietary naming guidance to remove the proposed controversial four-letter suffix from older biologics. In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published guidance to include a random four-letter suffix to the international nonproprietary names (INN) of all biological products. The ruling essentially distinguished a biosimilar from its reference product, so Amgen’s reference product Neupogen, for example, is known as ‘filgrastim-jcwp,’ while Sandoz’s biosimilar version Zarxio – the first biosimilar approved and…

Precision Bio hopes the initial public offering (IPO) will advance its off-the-shelf CAR-T candidates, based on its ARCUS genome editing platform. North Carolina-based Precision Bio has applied for a listing on the Nasdaq exchange. According to its Form S-1 filed with the SEC, the firm will use the anticipated $100 million (€88 million) raised in the IPO to advance and expand its clinical and preclinical development programs. This includes plans to complete a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for its CD19…

Scott Gottlieb will step down from his position as commissioner of the US FDA next month. He issued more cell and gene therapy guidance in his two-year tenure than had appeared in the previous ten. In May 2017, the US Senate confirmed Dr Scott Gottlieb as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This week, nearly two years on, and Gottlieb announced he is to step down from the role in the next month. Among Gottlieb’s achievements are…

The US FDA found antibody-drug conjugate developer Immunomedics to have manipulated data during an inspection last year. In January 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a complete response letter (CRL) to Immunomedics for its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate sacituzumab govitecan, being developed to treat breast cancer. The firm said at the time: “The issues related to approvability in the CRL were exclusively focused on Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control matters and no new clinical or preclinical data need…

The cell and gene therapy industry congregated in Miami to discuss supply chain strategies, regulatory rationale and the high manufacturing costs of advanced therapies. BioProcess Insider attended the Phacilitate Leaders World Summit, co-located with the World Stem Cell Summit, in Miami, Florida last week. The conference reflected on the first full year where three advanced therapies – Kymriah, Yescarta, and Luxturna – proved themselves on the commercial stage, heralding in a new frontier for regenerative medicines. But industry quickly rose above…

The FDA has approved Ontruzant, the third version of Roche’s cancer drug Herceptin, and the second US biosimilar approval for Samsung Bioepis. The product will be marketed by Merck & Co. Europe approved Ontruzant in November 2017 as a biosimilar to Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab), and 14 months on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the oncology biologic the regulatory thumbs up. Ontruzant becomes the seventeenth biosimilar to be approved in the US, and the first of 2019.…

The US FDA predicts it will receive more than 200 regenerative INDs per year from 2020 and will add 50 additional staff to review these products. There has been “a large upswing in the number of investigational new drug (IND) applications” for cell and gene therapies received by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) said in a statement yesterday. The Agency has so…