News

Cost regulators for the National Health Service in England and Wales have expanded treatment options for patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

A survey of GPs carried out by the British Medical Association indicates a low level of confidence in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection regime, prompting calls for a reform of the system.

An investigational therapy in development for the treatment of exertional heat stroke (EHS) has been placed on a fast-track development pathway by the US Food and Drug Administration, in the hope of accelerating access to the first drug for the potentially fatal condition.

Industrial action by junior doctors in England is to go ahead after contract talks with the government reached an impasse yet again.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Shona Robison has announced an independent review into the way medicines are assessed by the Scottish Medicines Consortium for use on the country’s National Health Service.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has given the go-ahead for scientists at the Francis Crick Institute to carry out research using new gene editing techniques on human embryos for the first time.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is consulting on a set of new indicators for GPs and commissioners designed to improve the management of atrial fibrillation and prevent thousands of case of stroke.

Six medicines have taken a giant leap closer to European approval after being endorsed by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.

Allergan’s experimental drug rapastinel has picked up a breakthrough therapy award in the US as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder.

Novartis has criticised the current state of drug access in the UK after its melanoma combination of Tafinlar and Mekinist launched in the country, but is still unavailable to patients while the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is closed to new medicines.

Researchers are suggesting the introduction of tougher investigations into off-label marketing practices by pharma companies, as the current system seems to be largely picking up only those cases with the most visible promotional activities.

US regulators have approved Eisai’s chemotherapy Halaven as a treatment for liposarcoma, offering patients access to the first therapy shown to offer a survival benefit.

The European Commission has green-lighted the use of Eli Lilly’s Cyramza as a treatment for patients with a certain type of lung cancer, as well as for some patients with colorectal cancer.

Merck & Co’s once-daily, single pill, fixed-combination hepatitis C drug Zepatier has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for patients with genotype 1 and 4 infections.

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Daklinza has been cleared in Europe for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C in three new difficult-to-treat patient populations.