News

The government is streaming more than £3 million into a new pilot scheme between NHS England and the Department of Education that strives to improve mental health services for children.

More than three-quarters of Clinical Commissioning Groups in England have now submitted joint expressions of interest in partnership with 132 local authorities to take part in the first phase of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

Online health services in England are booming, with patients on course to use web services offered by GPs to arrange more than 10 million appointments and order more than 15 million prescriptions in this financial year.

NHS cost regulators are planning to reject Alexion’s therapy for an ultra-rare bone disorder called paediatric-onset hypophosphatasia, which affects just seven people a year in England.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is now recommending Novartis’ Farydak as a third-line treatment for patients with multiple myeloma after initially rejecting the drug for NHS use earlier this year.

Boehringer Ingelheim has linked with US cancer research and care institute the MD Anderson Cancer Center in a deal focused on the development of novel approaches to treating pancreatic cancer, extending its focus on difficult-to-treat diseases. 

Hot on the heels of its US approval GlaxoSmithKline’s asthma biologic Nucala has now also bagged clearance in the EU for a difficult-to-treat form of asthma.

The worldwide controversy over the pricing of Gilead’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi has ramped up with a US Senate Finance Committee investigation concluding that the company put profit ahead of patients.

NICE has finally published a long-awaited update to its guideline on the treatment and management of type II diabetes, with a new focus on an individualised approach to secure the best outcomes for patients.

New data show that treatment with Novo Nordisk’s Victoza provides a greater HbA1c reduction and an improved likelihood of reaching glycaemic goals compared to sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors in people with type II diabetes unable to hit targets with other treatments.

A second patient has died while taking part in a late-stage trial assessing an anti-obesity drug being developed by US biotech Zafgen for the genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome.

The latest national audit of stroke services in the UK has revealed some progress in the care of patients, but also highlights key areas where more work needs to be done to ensure access to interventions and appropriate hospital assessments.

Cancer Research UK has re-opened its Dragon’s Den-style funding competition that aims to entice innovative thinkers from all backgrounds to apply for a grant to advance their novel project ideas targeting cancer.

The European Commission has expanded the scope of Pfizer’s oral ALK inhibitor Xalkori to include the first-line treatment of adults with a particular form of lung cancer.

Roche has signed a deal with US pharma Upsher-Smith Laboratories – through its wholly-owned UK subsidiary Proximagen – to develop an experimental therapy that might be effective in inflammatory diseases.