News

Australia has this month cut the prices of 492 drug brands by 12.5% or 16%, saving consumers around A$20 million a year, say ministers.

A US Food and Drug Administration panel has unanimously backed approval of Bayer’s riociguat in two pulmonary hypertension indications.

Merck KGaA has posted a reasonable set of figures for the second quarter, driven by cost-cutting and continued growth for its multiple sclerosis blockbuster Rebif.

KKR the US-based investment firm that last June acquired clinical research organisation PRA International from Genstar Capital, has made another sally into the CRO market with a definitive agreement to take over ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services (RPS) from its private-equity owner, Warburg Pincus.

Eli Lilly has stepped up its efforts to boost diversity in oncology studies by launching a new collaborative training programme for trial investigators from minority communities in the US.

The NHS is to be advised that it should not routinely provide Roche’s Perjeta (pertuzumab) as a treatment for a type of advanced breast cancer, because it does not represent value for money, says new draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co has suffered a setback after advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration decided not to recommend the Japanese drugmaker’s already-approved tolvaptan for a kidney disorder.

Bayer has signed a cancer immunotherapy deal with Compugen which could be worth over $540 million to the Israeli biotech.

What has been described as “radical new blueprint” for “everything” the National Health Service buys has been unveiled by the UK government.

In the company’s first quarterly-results announcement since it returned to public ownership in May, Quintiles Transnational reported operating income down by 5.9% year on year for the three months ended 30 June 2013, on service revenues that were virtually flat against last year’s quarter.

Roche has inked a deal with the Medicines Patent Pool to improve access to Valcyte, the Swiss major’s drug to treat cytomegalovirus.

Sanofi has begun a major late-stage trial on a vaccine against Clostridium difficile infections.

GlaxoSmithKline is going to have to wait a while yet before it gets the thumbs-up from the US Food and Drug Administration for its investigational diabetes drug albiglutide.

Ahead of a panel review, staff at the US Food and Drug Administration has backed Bayer’s riociguat for two forms of pulmonary hypertension but at a lower dose than the German group is looking for.

The Wellcome Trust has sold its stake in the payday lender Wonga, noting that the decision was taken “several months” before the recent furore concerning the controversial firm and the Church of England.