On January 6 and 7, 2025, the FDA released approximately 30 draft or final guidance documents1 covering a wide array of regulatory topics, including: These guidance documents reflect priorities the FDA deems urgent, especially in light of the new administration’s efforts to alter regulatory approaches. This article will focus on the draft guidance updates to…
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just taken a historic step by releasing its first-ever draft guidance on using artificial intelligence (AI) for regulatory decision-making related to the safety, effectiveness, or quality of drugs and biologics.1 Published in January 2025, this framework comes at a pivotal time, as AI’s potential to transform healthcare…
The FDA’s new Digital Health Advisory Committee (DHAC) convened for the first time on November 20-21, 2024. The topic of discussion was medical devices that rely on generative AI (GenAI) models, which hold transformative potential for healthcare but pose unique regulatory challenges. For example, how to define the device’s intended use, manage errors like hallucinations…
In February 2024, we reported on anticipated changes to the format of FDA advisory committee meetings (AdComs) based on public comments from FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and other FDA officials earlier this year. Some of those changes have, indeed, come to pass—most notably, a full‑throated return to in-person AdComs at the White Oak facility in…
The FDA has approved Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ Rezdiffra™ (resmetirom) for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The approval is a watershed event, marking a historic turning point in the long-standing quest to find an effective treatment for the millions of Americans afflicted by this devastating condition. A targeted treatment for NASH has eluded pharmaceutical scientists for nearly a half century……
This year, Rare Disease Day is on February 29, 2024. Rare Disease Day is observed on the last day of February, which is the “rarest of calendar dates1 to underscore the nature of these diseases” and serves to raise awareness of rare diseases and those individuals affected by them. FDA is holding a virtual meeting2…
Changes Are Coming to Advisory Committee Meetings Advisory Committee meetings (AdComs) are a long-standing feature of the FDA drug approval process. How and where those meetings are conducted has been evolving over the past few years, since the introduction of virtual meetings, and even more considerable reforms may be coming sooner rather than later. According…
“Silent killer” is an apt description for a potentially fatal disease that progresses slowly, without any obvious symptoms in the early stages. When you couple this insidious type of pathology with a rapidly increasing prevalence, the disease is often described in terms akin to an epidemic. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)—a disease characterized by fat accumulation in the…
Today, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved exagamglogene autotemcel (exa‑cel), the first CRISPR-based gene therapy for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). Exa‑cel was co-developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. This is a landmark approval that paves the way not only for better outcomes for patients with SCD, but for many…
