USFDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been investigating the presence of genotoxic impurities, called nitrosamines, in some types of drugs. Over the past year and a half, several drug products including angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and ranitidine, commonly known as Zantac, have been found to contain small amounts of nitrosamines such as N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). During this time, there has been an ongoing investigation into the presence of nitrosamines in other drug products. This effort is focused on ensuring the drugs used by Americans continue to meet strict quality standards.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for ORENCIA® (abatacept) for the prevention of moderate to severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in hematopoietic stem cell transplants from unrelated donors. There are no approved therapies for the prevention of acute GvHD, a potentially life-threatening medical complication that can impact patients receiving such transplants for the treatment of certain genetic diseases and hematologic cancers.

This guidance provides FDA’s current thinking on drug master files (DMFs), which are  submissions to FDA that may be used to provide confidential, detailed information about  facilities, processes, or articles used in the manufacturing, processing, packaging, and storing of human drug products. DMFs can contain other types of information as well (e.g., toxicology  information, shared system REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategy).

As part of Project Orbis, a collaboration with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted supplemental approval to Calquence (acalabrutinib) for the treatment of adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). This new approved indication for Calquence provides a new treatment option for patients with CLL or SLL as an initial or subsequent therapy.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved XCOPRI (cenobamate tablets) to treat partial-onset seizures in adults.

A seizure is a usually short episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Seizures can cause uncontrolled movements,  abnormal thinking or behavior, and abnormal sensations. Movements can be violent, and changes in consciousness can occur. Seizures occur when clusters of nerve cells (neurons) in the brain undergo uncontrolled activation. A partial-onset seizure begins in a limited area of the brain.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Adakveo (crizanlizumab-tmca), a treatment to reduce the frequency of vaso-occlusive crisis – a common and painful complication of sickle cell disease that occurs when blood circulation is obstructed by sickled red blood cells – for patients age 16 years and older.

Biological products play an increasingly central role in modern medicine, offering treatments for many serious illnesses. Commonly referred to as biologics, these medicines are generally made from natural or living sources, like animal and plant cells, and microorganisms such as bacteria or yeast, and developed using advanced science. They are usually more complex than other drugs and are particularly critical in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized marketing of a test to detect human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Type-1 drug resistance mutations using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The Sentosa SQ HIV Genotyping Assay is the first HIV drug resistance assay that uses NGS technology that the FDA has authorized for marketing in the U.S.

Public health and safety is the highest priority at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We maintain a robust practice of postmarket surveillance and risk evaluation programs to identify new adverse events that did not appear during the product development process, or to learn more about known adverse events. Evaluations occur on more than two million adverse event reports submitted every year to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) through the MedWatch Program and to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) by patients, family members, and health care providers, as well as adverse event reports submitted by regulated industry. Staff in our Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology and CBER’s Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology use this information to identify safety concerns and recommend actions to improve product safety and protect the public.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new partnership with the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, the latest effort in the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative launched by the three federal agencies in 2018.