Friday's Supreme Court decision

Starting the week with a recap of Friday’s Supreme Court decision and what happens next, plus five cancer innovations BIO members announced at last week’s AACR annual meeting. (665 words, 3 minutes, 19 seconds)

ICYMI: Friday’s Supreme Court decision

Here’s what happened, what happens next, and BIO’s take.

What happened: The Supreme Court ruled Friday that mifepristone will remain broadly available throughout the appeal of a Texas ruling that would halt the sale of the drug.

What’s next: We could see the case back in Supreme Court in about a year, where it likely will be dismissed because the plaintiffs cannot show the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug harms them, CBS’s Jan Crawford told Face the Nation yesterday.

Will they, or won’t they? While it’s far from over, some expect the Supreme Court will avoid an activist decision that upends the regulatory status quo based on a questionable argument because “there are reasons to think that an ambitious court has grown cautious,” The New York Times says.

BIO’s take: Friday’s decision is “an important development for patients and for ensuring access to approved medicines,” said BIO CEO Rachel King. “However, we must redouble our efforts to preserve and protect the FDA’s long-standing role as the authority in determining the safety and efficacy of medicines.”

The next steps: The case continues before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 17. BIO “will continue to organize and mobilize on behalf of patients and will work tirelessly to ensure that regulatory decision-making is grounded in scientific and medical expertise,” said King. 

Read more: The week in mifepristone and understanding the deeper impacts

5 cancer innovations to know from the AACR annual meeting

Remarkable cancer innovations were on display at last week’s annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)—here are five you should know from BIO members.

What happened: A “focal point of the cancer research community,” the annual meeting showcases advances and provides a barometer of progress against cancer.

Many BIO members made big announcements—here are just a few:

1. BeiGene announced a “manageable safety profile” and “encouraging anti-tumor activity” in phase 1a/1b trials of a treatment for advanced or refractory solid tumors like melanomas.
2. Genentech’s phase 3 trial showed a combination of Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and Avastin (bevacizumab) given to patients following liver cancer surgery “reduced the risk of cancer returning by 28%.”
3. Moderna and Merck presented a phase 2b trial showing Moderna’s mRNA-4157 combined with Merck’s KEYTRUDA significantly improves “recurrence-free survival when given to patients with resected high-risk melanoma,” compared to KEYTRUDA alone. 
4. OncoNano Medicine presented encouraging preclinical findings showing their primary treatment candidate “exhibits substantial anti-tumor effectiveness in a number of preclinical mice models with no systemic toxicity,” Bio.News reported.
5. MAIA Biotechnology described its phase 2 clinical trial showing their telomeres-targeting agent can treat non-small cell lung cancer patients with telomerase-positive cancer cells.

Read more at Bio.News.

More News: 

ABC News: Weekly COVID deaths hit new record low, CDC data shows
COVID-19 deaths reached levels not seen since late March 2020. An estimated 1,160 Americans died from the virus this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Brownfield: National corn growers want a formal dispute on Mexico’s corn ban
“Angus Kelly with the National Corn Growers Association tells Brownfield the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is done with the technical consultation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The Biden administration can now initiate a formal case. ‘If they don’t do that, we’ll have to look at legal recourse to encourage the U.S. Trade Representative to go ahead and pull the trigger.’” 

The New York Times (Opinion): Why dead birds are falling from the sky
“H5N1 is devastating the world’s birds. Eagles are dropping dead, as are great horned owls and peregrine falcons and pelicans. Twenty California condors recently died of what’s suspected to be avian flu—10 are confirmed so far. It’s the worst thing that has happened to wild birds since the pesticide DDT,” says science writer David Quammen.  

President Biden’s Monday: Honoring the Council of Chief State School Officers' 2023 Teachers of the Year as the Department of Education launches its Teaching Summit. Later, meeting with the “Tennessee Three” lawmakers who faced expulsion from the Tennessee House, per ABC News. 

What’s happening on Capitol Hill: A quiet day.