Skin cancer cells
Skin cancer cellsMarkus Schober and Elaine Fuchs, The Rockefeller University/NIH

Jason Mast is a general assignment reporter at STAT focused on the science behind new medicines and the systems and people that decide whether that science ever reaches patients. You can reach Jason on Signal at JasonMast.05.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday rejected — again — an experimental treatment for advanced skin cancer developed by Replimune Group. 

Replimune’s treatment, an engineered virus designed to rev up the immune system against melanoma, has been a flashpoint in a simmering debate over shifting standards at the agency.

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The drug was initially rejected in July, just two months after Vinay Prasad was appointed the FDA’s head of biologics. As an academic oncologist, Prasad criticized regulators for approving drugs with limited data, and the Replimune decision was viewed as a possible sign of the stricter stance he might take at the agency.

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