News

GPs fear that more than half of patients aged over 75 years are taking too many medicines and that many are not taking them as prescribed, new research has found, highlighting the urgent need for new procedures to improve treatment and compliance and thus boost care and save money.

GlaxoSmithKline is hoping to file 20 new medicines by 2020, followed by a further 20 in the subsequent five-year period.

Merck & Co’s onco-immunotherapy Keytruda has picked up its third breakthrough therapy designation in the US, this time after showing promise as a treatment for microsatellite instability high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer.

European regulators have expanded the reach of Celgene’s acute myeloid leukaemia treatment Vidaza so that elderly patients unable to undergo intensive therapies such as stem cell transplantation can now access the drug.

European regulators have again expanded the use of Bayer and Regeneron’s Eylea with an approval to treat visual impairment due to myopic choroidal neovascularisation, an eye disease associated with high degrees of myopia (near-sightedness).

A new initiative aiming to boost UK pathology research is to be launched next year with a cash injection of £635,000.

As pharma’s taste for deal-making shows no signs of abating, Shire is snapping up US rare disease group Dyax in a transaction worth around $5.9 billion, and potentially $646 million more.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has confirmed that Celgene’s Abraxane will not be routinely funded for treating pancreatic cancer on the National Health Service in England, claiming that the drug’s cost does not justify its benefit to patients.

Researchers at Manchester University are advancing a new targeted approach to treating cancer that involves ‘throwing’ drug-packed grenades with heat-sensitive triggers at tumour cells.

Pfizer has confirmed that it is in “preliminary friendly discussions with Allergan in relation to a potential transaction”, following intensive media coverage.

Inflated descriptions of new cancer drugs, as well as an absence of medical context, may lead to misunderstanding among readers, according to a research letter published in JAMA Oncology.

The first review of the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund has said that plans to extend GP services to Sundays should be scrapped due to low demand.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined plans for what he believes is a more “patient-focused” NHS culture.

A petition from charity Breast Cancer Now urging Roche to cut the price of its secondary breast cancer drug Kadcyla has been handed to the company after receiving over 42,000 signatures.

Pfizer is in preliminary talks to take over Allergan, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. The unconfirmed reports follow contact between Pfizer head Ian Read and his counterpart at Allergan, Brent Saunders.