View Expanded Table: Some Biologic Drugs and JAK Inhibitors for Rheumatoid Arthritis

The FDA has approved datopotamab deruxtecan (Datroway – Daiichi Sankyo/AstraZeneca), a trophoblast cell-surface antigen-2 (Trop-2)-directed antibody and topoisomerase inhibitor conjugate, for treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer who received prior endocrine-based therapy and chemotherapy for unresectable or metastatic disease.

View the Comparison Table: Some Oral/Transdermal Opioid Analgesics

On April 23, 2021, on advice from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the FDA and CDC recommended that use of the Johnson & Johnson adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine resume despite its association with development of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). Administration of the vaccine had been paused on April 13 because of 6 reports of TTS, but after completing a data review that identified a further 9 cases associated with the formulation, the agencies concluded that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed its risks. About 7.98 million doses of the...

Nogapendekin alfa inbakicept-pmln (Anktiva – ImmunityBio), a first-in-class interleukin-15 (IL15) receptor agonist, has been approved by the FDA for use with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) for treatment of patients with BCG-unresponsive nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ with or without papillary tumors. Such patients generally undergo bladder tumor resection, followed by intravesical BCG treatment, but treatment failure and cancer recurrence are common. The adenoviral vector-based intravesical gene therapy nadofaragene firadenovec-vncg (Adstiladrin)...

View Expanded Table: Some Conventional DMARDs for Rheumatoid Arthritis

The potassium-competitive acid blocker vonoprazan (Voquezna – Phathom), which was approved earlier for treatment of erosive esophagitis, has now been approved by the FDA for relief of heartburn associated with nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in adults. Vonoprazan is also available copackaged with amoxicillin (Voquezna Dual Pak) and with amoxicillin and clarithromycin (Voquezna Triple Pak) for treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Onychomycosis is caused most commonly by Trichophyton rubrum or T. mentagrophytes. About 10% of all persons worldwide and 40% of those ≥60 years old are believed to have the disease. Risk factors include older age, diabetes, poor peripheral circulation, smoking, HIV infection, psoriasis, and immunosuppression. Left untreated, onychomycosis can cause nail plate destruction, ingrown nails, and (particularly in patients with diabetes) secondary infections. Guidelines on treatment of onychomycosis have been published.

The FDA has expanded its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty) to permit use of the bivalent formulation (containing mRNA from the original and BA.4/5 Omicron strains of SARS-CoV-2) as a booster dose in children 6 months to 4 years old who completed the primary series with 3 doses of the monovalent formulation ≥2 months previously. The Pfizer bivalent vaccine had previously been authorized for use as a booster dose in persons ≥5 years old and as a third primary dose in children 6 months to 4 years old. Booster...

View the Table: Over the Counter At-Home Tests for COVID-19