Tagged with Drug Approvals

Japan Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) concluded FY 2024‑25 (April 2024–March 2025) with a total of 148 approval decisions, including no less than 66 new active ingredients and 82 lifecycle updates, including new indications, pediatric expansions, and formulation changes. Innovation Snapshot A steady stream of orphan and rare‑disease designations—including sparsentan for primary…

Switzerland For the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic), one of the world’s leading regulatory authorities, 2023 was an important year. Not only did the agency gain recognition from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Swissmedic also saw a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) agreement between Switzerland and the US FDA come into…

Europe The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended 77 drugs for marketing authorisation in 2023, including 39 new active substances, coming up behind the FDA’s record 55 new drug approvals last year. Cancer led the roster of EMA green lights with 25 authorisations, including nine therapies the agency has discerned as major…

China Writing in the May edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Xu Wang of Novo Nordisk China looks at the new drug approvals in China in 2021. Among other highlights, the approval of two CAR-T products signal that CAR-T treatment has finally entered the commercialization stage. The number of new drug…

USA In 2019, the US FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research approved 42 novel drugs, down from 59 drugs approved in 2018. Novartis had four drugs approved, the highest number from any single pharma company. 16 of the 42, or 38 per cent, received orphan drug designation. This listing does…

USA 59 novel drugs were approved in the USA in 2018, representing a leap from the 46 approved in 2017 and 22 approved in 2016. 19 of the 59 drugs (32 percent) have been designated ‘first-in-class’ and 34 of the 59 drugs (58 percent) were approved to treat rare or “orphan”…

Canada In total there were 27 new active substances (NASs) approved in Canada in 2018, 18 prescription pharmaceutical drugs and 9 biologics. In terms of companies that saw particular success last year, Merck (MSD outside of the US and Canada) had three prescription drugs approved, as did Swiss-headquartered Vifor Pharma. Global…