News

Almost 70% of Americans are taking at least one prescription drug, more than half take two, and 20% are on five or more, according to new research.

Sanofi chief executive Christopher Viehbacher has officially begun his two-year term as president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, saying that the old continent needs a different approach to healthcare.

Responding to growing demand in contract research and development for flexible, tailored service relationships below the level of comprehensive strategic partnerships, Parexel International has launched a functional-services unit within its Clinical Research Services segment.

Takeda UK and Nipro Diagnostics have entered into a long-term pact to co-promote a range of the latter group’s blood glucose monitoring systems within the UK.

CRS Clinical Research Services, a full-service contract research organisation (CRO) based in Andernach and specialising in early-phase trials, has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Bayer HealthCare that involves CRS taking over Bayer’s clinical pharmacology units in Germany.

Bayer has entered into an antibody-drug conjugate collaboration with Seattle Genetics in a deal that could be worth $520 million to the US biotech.

An official investigation to determine whether pharmaceutical companies are colluding with pharmacists to rig the market for ‘specials’ prescription drugs in the UK, and are thereby artificially inflating the amount the NHS is shelling out for them, could soon be underway.

Regulators in European have given the green light to Astellas Pharma and Medivation’s oral prostate cancer drug Xtandi.

Pfizer’s patent on Viagra has expired in the UK and other states in Europe, paving the way for the erectile dysfunction dysfunction market to be flooded with generics of the  blockbuster.

The US Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation to Novartis’ serelaxin as a treatment for patients with acute heart failure.

Sanofi has presented promising late-stage data on U300, an improved version of its blockbuster insulin Lantus.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has submitted its gut-selective monoclonal antibody vedolizumab for approval in the USA for moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has sprung swiftly out of the blocks and launched its generic version of Viagra immediately after Pfizer’s patent on the erectile dysfunction blockbuster expired in nine key European markets.

Belgium’s Cardio3 BioSciences has launched an initial public offering in Brussels and Paris to help finance its late-stage stem cell treatment for heart failure.

Celgene Corp has presented mid-stage data from a pair of trials which demonstrate the promise of using its myeloma blockbuster Revlimid in combination with Roche and Biogen Idec’s big-selling monoclonal antibody Rituxan for various non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.