News

Patients with a rare form of cystic fibrosis in England and Wales are currently being denied access to Vertex’ “life-changing” treatment Kalydeco (ivacaftor) on the National Health Service, even though it has regulatory backing and is already used for the most common mutation of the disease.

Merck & Co and Novo Nordisk have joined TransCelerate BioPharma, the non-profit established by leading pharmaceutical companies to advance innovation and tackle inefficiencies in R&D.

NHS England has launched a new consultation about how it should prioritise which specialised services and treatments to invest in.

Novartis has entered into exclusive negotiations with the University of Brighton on the purchase of the drug giant’s site in Horsham.

As part of his budget request for 2016, President Barack Obama will ask the US Congress to double the amount of federal funding for combating and preventing antibiotic resistance to more than $1.2 billion.

The largest facility in the UK for storing and processing biological samples for clinical research has opened today (January 28) in Milton Keynes.

Up to 1.3 million adult asthma patients in the UK may be wrongly diagnosed with the condition and taking medicines they don’t need, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Amgen and its subsidiary Onyx Pharmaceuticals have submitted filings for their multiple myeloma drug Kyprolis (carfilzomib) on both sides of the Atlantic.

Roche says that sales in 2014 inched up 1% to 47.46 billion francs, while net profit fell 16% to 9.54 billion francs, hurt by a one-time restructuring charge and lower than analyst forecasts.

European regulators have given conditional blessing to a proposed three-part deal between GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, under which the firms will exchange assets and form a new consumer healthcare joint venture.

National Health Service cost regulators have approved funding for Alexion’s Soliris (eculizumab) as a treatment for the ultra-rare blood disease Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (aHUS), at a potential cost of £340,000 per patient.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) alliance says new pledges totalling $7.54 billion, with much of it coming just from the UK government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will enable countries to immunise an additional 300 million children and avert up to six million premature deaths.

Patients with uncontrolled diabetes could now be given an ‘information prescription’ by their GP to help them better manage their health and condition.

AstraZeneca has launched in the UK a new pre-filled pen containing its once-weekly diabetes drug Bydureon (exenatide), offering patients a simpler route of administration.

Internet giant Google is continuing its foray into healthcare research by signing a deal looking at the progression of multiple sclerosis with Biogen Idec, according to Bloomberg.