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Less than one month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raised concerns about the supplemental New Drug Application for Pfizer and Myovant Sciences’ Myfembree (relugolix), the regulatory agency extended the review period to Aug. 6. The initial approval review date was May 6.

hydrocodone

Pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance and other defendants on April 26 said they were not to blame for the opioid crisis in San Francisco, and that they acted responsibly when providing legal medications to patients in pain.

FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on November 16 authorized a virtual reality system from Applied VR for reducing lower back pain after a majority of patients in a trial testing the device showed lesser discomfort.

Eli Lilly and Pfizer announced Oct. 27 that they ceased the development of tanezumab, a pain drug the two companies had been developing for osteoarthritis.

Shares of Flexion Therapeutics soared in trading on Oct. 11 after Pacira Biosciences announced the acquisition of the Burlington, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company for $427 million in cash.

Belgium-based Bone Therapeutics’ Phase III osteoarthritis study using the company’s enhanced viscosupplement JTA-004 failed to meet primary and critical secondary endpoints.

A group of scientists from the Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health at Oxford University may have found a potential key to finally treating endometriosis, a disease that affects around 176 million women worldwide. 

Biotech company Psycheceutical Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was issued two patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for what it calls a “precision duplicity” approach to delivering psychedelic drugs to patients.

The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research unit of New York State health care provider Northwell Health, may have found a way to control neurons that drive inflammation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Heron Therapeutics Inc.’s Zynrelef (bupivacaine and meloxicam) extended-release solution for use in adults for soft tissue or periarticular instillation to produce postsurgical analgesia for up to 72 hours after bunionectomy, open inguinal herniorrhaphy and total knee arthroplasty.