News

In the UK, the Department of Health has laid out plans confirming that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will be responsible for assessing new drugs as part of value-based pricing in six months’ time.

Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and engineering giant Siemens have signed on as founding members of a new consortium set up by Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) to address challenges such as costs, regulatory compliance and processes to bring drugs from trials to markets.

South Korea has topped a 15-nation league table in terms of improvements made to its healthcare system over the last five years, while Spain’s health service is the least-improved, according to new consumer research.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has slammed “unacceptable” failings at the Care Quality Commission and an alleged ‘cover-up’ of its botched handling of complaints at Furness General Hospital, involving a number of infant deaths.

US-based clinical research organisation (CRO) TKL Research is adding to its cluster of research clinics in northern New Jersey with the construction of a new facility in Fair Lawn, which will include a 30-bed unit for Phase I trials.

A new report has laid out the need for drugmakers to participate in creating clearer pathways to achieve better outcomes in the face of “changing perceptions of what offers value to health systems”.

Avoidable costs of more than $200 million are incurred each year in the US healthcare system as a result of medicines not being used responsibly by patients and healthcare professionals, according to new research from IMS.

UK charity Target Ovarian Cancer has launched a Clinical Trials Information Centre online to address significant disparities both among women with ovarian cancer and clinicians between the desire to participate in clinical trials and the opportunities to do so.

Vivus has presented data on its already-approved but not-yet-marketed erectile dysfunction drug Stendra which shows that the treatment is effective for sexual activity within 15 minutes.

ALK-Abello has unveiled positive top-line results from the first of two Phase III trials of the Danish firm’s immunotherapy tablet against house dust mite allergy.

Men are three times more likely to get oesophageal cancer than women and cases of the disease are steadily on the rise, according to new data from Cancer Research UK.

There have been significant improvements over the last eight years in public perceptions of clinical-trial safety as well as trust in the motives of clinical research professionals, a new international study has found.

Danish drugmaker Lundbeck has been handed a 93-million-euro fine in Europe for paying companies to delay market entry for their generic versions of the antidepressant citalopram, signalling a much tougher stance on such agreements.

Ahead of next week’s Spending Review, a leading think tank has urged Ministers to lift the ring-fence on the health budget in order to accelerate progress on NHS reform, which it says is currently “flatlining.”

A first glimpse at the work of Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWB) has concluded that “significant advances” have been made, albeit with a mixed picture of progress.