News

Pfizer and UK-based clinical-stage discovery group Heptares have entered into a strategic drug discovery collaboration to research and develop potential new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas based on G protein-coupled receptors.

Roche has pulled out of a deal to develop a new antibiotic for treating superbug infections.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie’s experimental multiple myeloma drug Empliciti has been cleared for US use just three months after regulators said they would undertake a priority review of the drug.

The British Medical Association has called off industrial action by junior doctors following conciliatory talks with NHS Employers and the Department of Health that will see all parties back around the table for “genuine negotiations”.

The run of US approvals for Bristol-Myers Squibb’s immunotherapy Opdivo has hit a stumbling block after US regulators refused to approve the drug’s use in patients with advanced melanoma carrying a specific genetic mutation.

European regulators are to review a novel drug designed to treat anorexia, cachexia, or unintended weight loss in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

London’s ambulance service has become the first ambulance trust in England to be put into special measures, after inspectors found improvements were needed across the board on safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership.

Amgen is seeking permission to market ABP 501 – potentially the first biosimilar of AbbVie’s multi-billion-dollar blockbuster Humira – in the US for inflammatory conditions.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Praxbind, which reverses the effects of its anticoagulant Pradaxa, has been approved in Europe, giving the company a potential boost in this increasingly competitive market.

From early next year UK patients with haemophilia A will have the option of using a new, longer-acting treatment to keep bleeds under control, after Sobi and Biogen’s Elocta was approved for use in the country.

Novartis has launched its new, targeted lung cancer therapy Zykadia in the UK, but patients may have trouble accessing it given NICE’s proposals to reject the drug for NHS use and NHS England’s decision to put a freeze on new therapies for the Cancer Drugs Fund until April next year.

A National Audit Office report has found that while the vast majority of patients were able to get a GP appointment in the last year satisfaction with access is on a continued decline.

The first four startups to join Velocity Health – the UK’s ground-breaking preventative digital healthcare accelerator programme – have been now been unveiled, chosen for their innovative ideas that seek to address key care challenges.

UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has begun dosing patients in a Phase III study assessing the potential of its monoclonal antibody sirukumab as a treatment for giant cell arteritis.

Patients with hepatitis C living in England and Wales could get ‘routine’ access to three new treatments – Gilead’s Harvoni, AbbVie’s Viekirax and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Daklinza – after cost-regulators approved their use on the National Health Service.