New US FDA Adcomm Trend: Approved Cancer Meds Get Another Look When Competitors Coming

Recent ODAC meetings suggest the FDA will expand focus beyond applications with pending approval decisions to refining trial designs and drug labels for competitors.

empty dark stage with a spotlight on the center
Competitor applicants recently have put previously approved drugs back in the advisory committee spotlight. (Shutterstock)

For the second time in recent months the US Food and Drug Administration is convening an Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee that is using the presence of a pending application to debate whether changes are needed to the broader field of drugs in the same class and indication.

Key Takeaways

  • For the second time in recent months FDA is using a cancer drug advisory committee to weigh broader class-wide changes, not just a pending application.

Such a move should put sponsors on notice that their medications may catch the FDA’s advisory committee spotlight when they...

Pink Sheet Podcast

Learn what's happening at the US FDA. On the go.

Derrick Gingery and the team bring you a weekly "Drug Fix".

More from Pink Sheet

Pink Sheet Podcast: Understanding the US FDA’s CDER Leadership - Clone

 

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.

Test FDA Voucher Program Approvals Will Come From Product Centers, But Ambiguity Lingers - Clone

 
• By 

Approval decisions for the FDA's CNPV pilot program will be made by product center officials, but it's unclear if the responsibility lies with center directors or review office leaders.

Pink Sheet Podcast: Understanding the US FDA’s CDER Leadership

 

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.

Test FDA Voucher Program Approvals Will Come From Product Centers, But Ambiguity Lingers

 
• By 

It is unclear in a revised staff manual guide whether Commissioner's National Priority Voucher program approval “recommendations” from the drug and biologic center directors will be advisory or decisional, experts told the Pink Sheet.

More from Post-Marketing Regulation & Studies

Ocaliva Confirmatory Trial Failed To Verify Benefit In Primary Biliary Cholangitis, US FDA Says

 
• By 

A real-world evidence study also does not meet the regulatory standard for an adequate and well-controlled clinical investigation, the agency said. The FDA should allow the accelerated approval drug to remain available like other treatments that failed their confirmatory trials, Intercept said.  

AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi Squeezes Through: Is FDA Reversing Course Or In A Transition Period?

 

Even as US FDA expressed concern about the perioperative trial design, AstraZeneca’s ability to snag NSCLC indication without demonstrating the benefits of both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant phases of therapy highlights slow pace of agency policy shifts.

Adaptimmune Aims To Quickly Convert Teclera’s Accelerated Approval

 

The first engineered cell therapy for a solid tumor could be submitted for full approval in synovial sarcoma next year.