News

Shares in US biotech Vical fell through the floor yesterday after it announced the demise of its Allovectin immunotherapy for advanced melanoma.

ViiV Healthcare, a joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Shionogi, will be thrilled with news that US regulators have issued a green light for its new once-daily HIV pill Tivicay.

Allergan has become the latest Western drugmaker to fall foul of India’s intellectual property regime, losing patents on two of its glaucoma products.

The type 2 diabetes therapeutic market in China – the third largest after the US and Japan – will grow 10% annually to 2017, when it will be worth $3.5 billion, say new forecasts.

Scottish cost regulators have approved the use of Bristol Myers-Squibb’s subcutaneous version of Orencia (abatacept) on the National Health Service as a first-line biologic agent for adults with rheumatoid arthritis.

Teva has chalked up a milestone in its branded products business after winning EU approval for Lonquex, a white blood cell stimulator that will compete with Amgen’s blockbuster Neulasta brand.

The UK government has handed over £124 million to 13 pioneering research teams working on projects to tackle some of the country’s most pressing healthcare problems.

Early research on an investigational malaria jab has sparked hopes of an effective vaccine against the disease, which kills more than 600,000 people every year.

As expected, Celgene has been given the thumbs-up in Europe for its myeloma drug pomalidomide, which will be marketed as Imnovid.

Sanofi says it is taking “very seriously” allegations that some employees bribed more than 500 doctors in China six years ago.

Johnson & Johnson’s multiple myeloma treatment Velcade has been cleared as a first-line therapy in the EU, boosting the number of patients eligible for treatment with the drug.

The Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology has urged the NHS to be open to earlier and fuller engagement with innovative business of all sizes.

GlaxoSmithKline has launched a $50 million venture capital fund that will invest in companies that pioneer medicines using electrical impulses to regulate the body’s organs and functions.

Icon, the global provider of outsourced development services based in Ireland, has formed a partnership with the National Clinical Trials and Research Centre (NCTRC) at the National Taiwan University Hospital to improve the set-up and management of clinical studies in Taiwan.

Ixchelsis, a start-up company that has come out of Pfizer’s former R&D site at Sandwich, UK, is progressing a treatment for premature ejaculation boosted by the backing of Eli Lilly.