Rethinking the marketing strategy of anti-tumor drugs by single-arm trials supported / 中华肿瘤杂志

Single-arm trial refers to a clinical trial design that does not set up parallel control group, adopts open design, and does not involve randomization and blind method. These features, on the one hand, speed up the process of clinical trials, significantly shorten the time to market and meet the needs of patients with advanced malignancies, but also lead to the uncertainty of single-arm clinical trials themselves. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration held a meeting of the oncologic drug advisory committee to discuss six tumor indications that have been accelerated approved, which once again triggered the discussion of single-arm trials. The basis of accelerated approval by single-arm trial is actually a compromise on the level of evidence-based medical evidence requirements after assessing the benefit risk. Therefore, the sponsor should strictly grasp the applicable conditions of single-arm trial in anti-tumor drugs and conduct single-arm trial scientifically. Post-marketing clinical trial should be implement as early as possible to ensure the benefit of patients. Based on the characteristics of single-arm trial, combined with two guidance relevant to single-arm trial issued by National Medical Products Administration recently, this article is supposed to propose and summarize the strategy of single-arm trial supporting the marketing of anti-tumor drugs.

Recent advances in the translation of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics science for drug discovery and development

Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) is an important branch of pharmaceutical sciences. The nature of ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) and PK (pharmacokinetics) inquiries during drug discovery and development has evolved in recent years from being largely descriptive to seeking a more quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the fate of drug candidates in biological systems. Tremendous progress has been made in the past decade, not only in the characterization of physiochemical properties of drugs that influence their ADME, target organ exposure, and toxicity, but also in the identification of design principles that can minimize drug-drug interaction (DDI) potentials and reduce the attritions. The importance of membrane transporters in drug disposition, efficacy, and safety, as well as the interplay with metabolic processes, has been increasingly recognized. Dramatic increases in investments on new modalities beyond traditional small and large molecule drugs, such as peptides, oligonucleotides, and antibody-drug conjugates, necessitated further innovations in bioanalytical and experimental tools for the characterization of their ADME properties. In this review, we highlight some of the most notable advances in the last decade, and provide future perspectives on potential major breakthroughs and innovations in the translation of DMPK science in various stages of drug discovery and development.

Guidelines investigation and technical considerations of virus safety during investigational new drug application of innovative monoclonal antibody products / 药学学报

With the development of antibody manufacturing technology and improvement of new drug research in domestic industry, more innovative monoclonal antibody products submitted investigational new drug (IND) application. At the same time, monoclonal antibody products from abroad which have been approved marketing authorization and/or conducted clinical trials submitted IND applications in China. The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) issued the "Guideline of Investigational New Drug Application" (No. 16, 2018) which emphasized the chemical, manufacturing, and control (CMC) regulatory, and dossier requirements in IND application, greatly promoted the application quality of innovative biological products. However, compared to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), our particular guidelines are insufficient, such as guideline on virus safety evaluation of biotechnological investigational medicinal products. This review investigated the questions raised by sponsors from 2018 to 2020, including the end of production cell (EOPC) and/or unprocessed bulk (UPB) testing and virus removal or inactivation validation. Meanwhile, sponsors submitted different dossiers due to differences in understanding of stage requirements of guidelines from domestic and abroad. Based on the guidelines of virus safety from NMPA, FDA, and EMA, and the technical considerations, this review puts forward personal suggestions on the adventitious agents testing and virus removal or inactivation validation in manufacturing process, aim to ensure virus safety of innovative monoclonal antibody products in clinical trials.

Considerations for anti-cancer drug application by single arm trials / 中华肿瘤杂志

Single arm trial (SAT) was widely used for new drug application (NDA) of novel anti-cancer drugs in recent years. The listing time was greatly shortened by SAT while comparing with randomized controlled trials (RCT). Thus, the companies intended to get NDA through SAT. To encourage innovation and accelerate the developments of anti-cancer agents, we summarize the background and key issues of SAT, discuss the conditions of accepting SAT for NDA, and systematically elaborate the design and principles of SAT in this review.

Regulation and new drug application of botanical drugs in the world / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

This review summarizes the developmental history of natural products and research status of botanical products in different oversea countries. This paper outlines the regulation for new drug application of botanical drugs from the USA, European Union, and Japan. It also uses the Vergen (the first botanical drug approved by US FDA) as an example to discuss how to meet regulatory require-ments for new drug applications.

Research on Mechanism of Drug Clinical Hold in USA / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the mechanism of clinical hold in USA and to provide reference and enlightenment for clinical trial review process reform in China. METHODS: Analyzed the regulation, review process, reasons and impacts of drug clinical hold in USA and compared with clinical trial system in China, then provided advice for our country. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: FDA review IND by implied license process within only 30 d, and may permit the clinical trials begin as early as possible, the clinical trial could be imposed on hold, and the hold could also be lifted or transfer into inactive status, thus protect the health and rights of subjects to the largest extent, and in the same time improved the review efficiency. It is necessary and feasible that clinical hold is introduced into clinical trial system in our country.

Analysis of FDA's Review for NDA208542-Rociletinib / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

Lung cancer is the highest mortality rate of malignancies in the world.Among them,non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85％.Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene is one of the most common driving genes in NSCLC.The EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) bring a breakthrough in the treatment for patients with EGFR gene-sensitive mutations.However,the drug resistance problem of EGFR-TKIs has been increasingly highlighted.So a drug for the patients accompanied by EGFR T790M positive mutation and along with progression in or after treatment with EGFR-TKI NSCLC is clinically urgent needed.Rociletinib is designed to address this unmet clinical need.While considering the non-superior effectiveness to the similar drugs in the market and the high risk of safety (hyperglycemia,QT prolongation and sudden death) of Rociletinib,the dosage was not accepted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).And Rociletinib did not make it to the market eventually.This paper discussed lessons learned from this case under review perspective for reference and inspiration.

Botanical Drug Development-Guidance for Industry and Expert Views on Botanical Drug Development in the US / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

The definition of new drugs in China and the US has no major differences on chemical drugs and biologics.However,Chinese medicines,which are regulated as over-the-counter (OTC) or prescription drugs in China,are mostly regulated as food and/or dietary supplements without FDA approved medicinal use for marketing.The FDA Guidance for Industry-Botanical Drug Products (2004) and the recently revised Guidance for Botanical Drug Development (2016) paved the way for Chinese herbal medicine and other botanical mixtures to be further developed as new drugs through clinical trials and other nonclinical studies.FDA recognizes the value of traditional medicines as part of the previous human experiences to support the safety and speed up early phase clinical trials of botanical products under investigational new drug (INDs) applications.The revised Guidance included addition recommendations for late phase development,like phase 2 trials and new drug applications (NDA),to resolve some of the unique challenges on batch-tobatch consistency (e.g.,a totality of evidence approach,including raw material control,bioassays,multiple-batch and multiple-dose clinical trials,and etc.).The approval of Veregen and Fulyzaq (now Mytesi) are new molecular entity / new chemical entity type of new drugs,treasured fruits from several hundred INDs studying botanicals.With those NDA examples,it is expected that further study of Chinese herbal medicines as new botanical drugs through further clinical and nonclinical development will be fruitful.On the other hand,long-term commitments are universal for new drug development.And it will also be true for bringing Chinese herbal medicines as botanical new drugs to international markets.It still takes time to see whether artesunate tablets can be verified through further clinical trials and achieve the same level of Coartem.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a clinical review including Korean cohorts

Only 5th decade ago, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was only recognized as disease group of presenting features like peripheral lymphocytosis, organomegaly including of splenomegaly. As understanding of disease biology and molecular diagnostic tools are getting improved gradually, characterization of variation in CLL's clinical courses was facilitated, resulting in better risk stratification and targeted treatments. Consequently multiple new targeted agents have been used in treatment of CLL, it makes improved clinical outcome. Rituximab containing chemoimmunotherapy (combination of rituximab, fludarabine, and cyclophosphamide) have shown better overall response rate and progression-free survival on fit patients' group in front-line setting, result in standard first-line therapeutic option for CLL. Furthermore, after introducing that the B-cell receptor is crucial for the evolution and progression of CLL, emerging treatments targeting highly activated surface antigens and oncogenic signaling pathways have been associated with several successes in recent decades. These include new anti-CD 20 monoclonal antibody (obinutuzumab), the bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor (ibrutinib), the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor (idelalisib), and B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2 inhibitor (ABT-199 and ABT-263). So, we discuss not only general pathophysiology of CLL, but also rapidly advancing treatment strategies that are being studied or approved for treatment of CLL.