Sarah Karlin-Smith
Sarah is a senior writer at the Pink Sheet, specializing in the policy and politics that affect the pharmaceutical industry. She covers the US Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service and Congress. Her work explores how government policies influence how drugs are developed and approved, what diseases are prioritized by scientists, and who gets access to medicines and at what cost. Sarah has covered health care since 2011. Prior to returning to the Pink Sheet in March 2020, she covered health policy at Politico for five years.
Latest From Sarah Karlin-Smith
US COVID Vaccine Patent Waiver Is Big, Symbolic Blow For Pharma, But The Fight Is Just Beginning
Drug manufacturers still have a variety of ways to limit the impact of the Biden administration’s historic decision. Whether the huge political loss for industry translates into more than just headline-risk or faster global COVID vaccination remains to be seen. It's also not clear whether it’s an ominous sign for other industry battles in the US, including the drug pricing debate.
US COVID Vaccine Patent Waiver Is Big, Symbolic Blow For Pharma, But The Fight Is Just Beginning
Drug manufacturers still have a variety of ways to limit the impact of the Biden administration’s historic decision. Whether the huge political loss for industry translates into more than just headline-risk or faster global COVID vaccination remains to be seen. It's also not clear whether it’s an ominous sign for other industry battles in the US, including the drug pricing debate.
Woodcock: COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not The Time For Structural Changes At US FDA
Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock says FDA is interested in establishing new ‘Centers of Excellence’ but the current environment is not the right time to make changes at the agency. Woodcock also talked about where FDA will spend its new pandemic money and its reexamination of accelerated approval drugs in a wide-sweeping conversation with the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.
Failure to Heed FDA Warnings of Poor Trial Design Likely To Haunt ChemoCentryx At Advisory Cmte.
Phase III trial was statistically significant, but US FDA argues complex study design makes it unclear that ChemoCentryx’s avacopan offers a clinically meaningful benefit, including a safety advantage, for ANCA vasculitis. Agency had tried to direct company to better designed trials earlier in development program.
Cancer Accelerated Approval On Trial: Advisors With Conflict-Of-Interest Waivers More Likely To Support Industry
US FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee panelists who were granted financial conflict-of-interest waivers to participate in the agency’s multi-day review of accelerated approvals for three immunotherapies voted in favor of keeping the indications at issue on market more than three-quarters of the time. Non-conflicted experts voted in favor only two-thirds of the time. One of the six panel outcomes would have been different without the conflicted members’ votes.
Bladder Cancer Accelerated Approvals: Merck, Genentech PD-1/L1 Inhibitors Prevail At US FDA Panel, But For Different Reasons
Merck’s path forward is less clear than Genentech’s after US FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee says Keytruda and Tecentriq should hold on to their accelerated approvals for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma patients who are not eligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. FDA has to figure out a confirmatory study for Merck and weigh potentially limiting indication.