FDA

Regulatory inspections of interactive response technology systems have surged 140% since 2022, signaling intensified global scrutiny of data integrity, randomization, and system validation in clinical trials.

FDA outlines its limited operations during the funding lapse, focusing on essential public health activities while halting new drug applications.

A quick look at FDA’s 2025 transparency moves, what CRLs are (and aren’t), how FAERS works and its limits, who can report, and where the agency is applying AI.

The designation supports expedited development of SAR402663, Sanofi’s one-time gene therapy designed to reduce treatment burden and slow vision loss in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration.

FDA approves COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Novavax targeting the LP.8.1 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2, with eligibility limited to adults aged 65 years and older and those with underlying medical conditions that place them with a high risk for severe disease.

The FDA will now publish adverse event data from FAERS on a daily basis, marking a major step toward greater transparency in drug development.

With approval to proceed, the Phase II trial (NCT06092034) of RP-A501 for Danon disease restarts under an optimized dosing and immunomodulatory strategy.

Breakthrough Therapy Designation was based on results from the Phase II IDeate-Lung01 trial (NCT05280470), which demonstrated clinically meaningful benefits in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer treated with ifinatamab deruxtecan.

Ron Lanton, partner, Lanton Law, explains how shifts in policy and government guidance could reduce public participation and complicate the design and recruitment of future vaccine trials.

In this episode of the Applied Clinical Trials Brief, we recap our three most-viewed stories of the previous week with a look into the FDA’s heightened scrutiny of trial design, the wind-down of federal mRNA vaccine programs, and how digital innovation is reshaping the clinical research landscape.

A unified technology approach improves study efficiency and data collection.

In this video interview, Luke Wilson, senior director, biotech, pharma services at Thermo Fisher Scientific, discusses how integrated systems and data transparency enable sponsors to meet evolving regulatory expectations and streamline FDA inspections through enhanced operational readiness.

Complete Response Letters recently issued by the FDA signal heightened scrutiny of trial design and reinforce the agency’s shifting regulatory expectations for sponsors and CROs.

Despite ambitions to streamline regulatory review, FDA’s Elsa platform has been prone to hallucinations, prompting internal scrutiny and questions about AI reliability and governance.

The FDA’s complete response letter cited concerns that the Phase I/II IGNYTE (NCT03767348) trial in advanced melanoma was not an adequate, well-controlled study and that its heterogeneous patient population limited interpretability, preventing approval in its current form.

Despite the setback with the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee vote, GSK emphasizes the unmet need in multiple myeloma and highlights global momentum behind Blenrep combination approvals.

By publishing more than 200 complete response letters, the FDA is offering new visibility into the issues that most often delay drug approvals, including safety concerns, trial design flaws, and manufacturing gaps.

Outdated regulations and inflexible sponsor processes are hampering clinical trial recruitment, but empowering sites with modern, compliant marketing tools could turn the tide.

As clinical research increasingly relies on RWD to enhance trial design and patient insights, tokenization has emerged as a critical solution for securely linking disparate datasets while protecting patient privacy.

Under the new initiative, companies may receive a voucher enabling FDA review to be shortened from the standard 10–12 months to just 1–2 months following final application submission if the drug addresses US national health priorities.

In this video interview, Ron Lanton, partner, Lanton Law, talks FDA layoffs and their impact on inspections and clinical trial timelines.

While randomization is required by regulatory bodies, it is up to the sponsor on how to conduct it.

In an article recently published by The New England Journal of Medicine, FDA higher-ups Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH; and Martin A. Makary, MD, MPH, wrote that any new COVID-19 vaccine must now be evaluated in placebo-controlled studies.

Rinvoq (upadacitinib) becomes the first oral JAK inhibitor approved by the FDA for the treatment of giant cell arteritis in adults, following robust data from the Phase III SELECT-GCA trial demonstrating its efficacy in achieving sustained remission and reducing glucocorticoid exposure.

In this video interview, Thierry Escudier, portfolio lead, Pistoia Alliance, highlights where regulatory agencies currently stand on sustainability in clinical trials and how pharma companies are looking to reduce their carbon footprint.