Pending legislation will give agency ability to require that confirmatory studies be underway at time of approval and expedited withdrawal process could allow FDA to skip a second advisory committee meeting, but Congress holds back on some agency requests for expanded authority.

Drama continues for the multiple myeloma treatment as US FDA formally moves to pull accelerated approval. Oncopeptides anticipates making a decision on the request in the first quarter of 2023.

The first BCMA-targeting agent to gain approval in myeloma never became the blockbuster for which GSK had hoped, but Blenrep appears to have set a new standard for speed of voluntary withdrawal of an accelerated approval drug after a confirmatory trial failure.

The US FDA process to force the withdrawal of the pre-term labor drug Makena is in its final stages. The product seems likely to finally leave the market – but may also demonstrate that there is a business to be built in contesting FDA withdrawal proceedings.