News

Patients in Europe with multiple myeloma could soon get access to a new treatment option for their disease following approval of Amgen’s Kyprolis, the first irreversible proteasome inhibitor cleared to treat the blood cancer.

US regulators have issued a full green light for Novartis’ targeted skin cancer therapy Tafinlar/Mekinist, nearly two years after an accelerated approval was issued for the combination.

MSD has launched a new intravenous antibiotic in the UK capable of treating certain Gram-negative bacterial infections, offering a new weapon in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Takeda’s Ninlaro as the first oral proteasome inhibitor for the treatment of the incurable and rare blood cancer multiple myeloma.

Sandoz has launched in the UK a new patient-centric inhaler for the symptomatic treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In an unusual move AstraZeneca and Sanofi will exchange 210,000 compounds in order to boost their libraries and help launch more drug discovery programmes.

Servier has opted to acquire global rights to the allogenic CAR-T cell therapy UCART 19 from Cellectis and bring Pfizer on board to drive its development and commercialisation in blood cancers. 

The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group has accepted Xultophy for restricted use within NHS Wales to lower blood glucose in certain patients with type II diabetes.

The vast majority of junior doctors have voiced their support for industrial action over the government’s threat to impose a new working contract from August next year.

Eli Lilly and Merck & Co have extended an existing pact to investigate a combination of their respective drugs Alimta and Keytruda for non-small cell lung cancer.

Long-awaited plans for the future of England’s Cancer Drugs Fund have now been unveiled, with proposals centred on a system for commissioning new cancer drugs that is fully integrated into NICE’s appraisal process.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will this morning issue a Final Appraisal Determination recommending Bayer’s Xofigo for National Health Service use to treat certain patients with prostate cancer, but only in the post-chemo setting.

Speculation is hotting up that Pfizer will announce in a matter of days its intention to buy Dublin, Ireland-based Allergan for $150 billion, in what could be the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest-ever transaction.

The world is drawing closer to a “post-antibiotic era” after bacteria resistant to last-resort drugs are discovered in China.

The US Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review Novartis unit Sandoz’ pegfilgrastim – a biosimilar to Amgen’s Neulasta and its third biosimimilar now filed in the country.