The FDA finally approved the treatment — with a boxed warning — on August 19, 2015, the very next day Sprout announced it was being sold to Valeant (now Bausch Health) for a tidy $1 billion. Unlock this story instantly and join 91,500+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free. Sprout had asked for complete removal of the boxed warning and any mention of alcohol being contraindicated, according to the FDA announcement. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. FDA tells Sprout Pharma, like it or not the black box on Addyi stays, but we will dilute the warning . For a gene therapy tech upstart that launched out of stealth mode just 5 months ago with big goals and not a tremendous amount of launch money, Dyno Therapeutics has quickly moved itself into a frontline offensive in R&D — working in league with some of the marquee developers in the field. The biotech says their lead drug GB001 failed the primary endpoint in their dose-ranging asthma study as well as all the endpoints in a parallel trial they ran for chronic rhinosinusitis. Building on alliances with Novartis and Sarepta, the global Roche/Genentech group has now stepped in with the latest discovery deal, willing to wager up to $1.8 billion that the spinout from George Church’s lab at Harvard has what it takes to deliver on AAV 2.0. The regulator has proverbially put its foot down and is compelling Addyi maker Sprout Pharmaceuticals to make the change after the two parties were unable to reach an agreement. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. "Today, with Addyi, Canadian women have access to the first ever treatment for their most common sexual dysfunction after decades of men having access to a myriad of options for their own," said Cindy Eckert, CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals. All Rights Reserved. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Joffe now serves as the acting director of the Office of Rare Diseases, Pediatrics, Urologic and Reproductive Medicine. These cookies do not store any personal information. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Sprout purchased flibanserin from Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim, which originally developed it and took it to the FDA, only to be denied approval in 2010. Natalie Grover Reporter. The initial data presented for Addyi’s approval showed a concerning benefit-risk profile, with risks for hypotension and syncope, especially when the drug was taken with alcohol. The agency’s decision followed a favorable 18-6 vote when the Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee met jointly earlier that year to consider approving Addyi. An NIH trial for an Eli Lilly antibody, one of two coronavirus drugs President Trump has touted and urged the FDA to authorize in recent weeks, has been halted over a safety concern. Johnson & Johnson has voluntarily ordered a halt to all of its Covid-19 vaccine studies so investigators can probe the unexplained illness of one of the people in their study. This year, about a third of the awards were given to “heroes” of the pandemic, according to The Guardian. The study, known as ACTIV-3, compared the Lilly antibody plus remdesivir to the antibody plus placebo in hospitalized Covid-19 patients and was slated to enroll up to 10,000 volunteers. GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley is adding a royal title to her name.