Scott Got­tlieb in the run­ning for pos­si­ble coro­n­avirus czar; The drug Van­da sued the FDA over fails a piv­otal study

→ For­mer FDA com­mis­sion­er Scott Got­tlieb is among a hand­ful of can­di­dates be­ing con­sid­ered for coro­n­avirus czar, a new role that the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion may set up to over­see the US’s re­sponse to the spread­ing out­break, Politi­co re­port­ed. The pres­i­dent has yet to make the fi­nal de­ci­sion, but has an­nounced a press con­fer­ence lat­er to­day up­on his re­turn from In­dia.

→ Days af­ter a court ruled against Van­da in its law­suit against the FDA over a par­tial clin­i­cal hold on tradip­i­tant, the biotech said the drug has failed a Phase III study for pru­ri­tus as­so­ci­at­ed with atopic der­mati­tis. While the neu­rokinin 1 an­tag­o­nist missed the pri­ma­ry end­point of re­duc­ing itch­ing among all pa­tients, Van­da point­ed to “ro­bust” an­tipru­rit­ic ef­fect in the mild AD sub­pop­u­la­tion as a rea­son to re­main op­ti­mistic and said it will re­assess its sec­ond, on­go­ing late-stage study.

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