News

The Welsh Government has this week unveiled a new framework to help the National Health Service improve the prevention and management of heart disease in the country.

A funding injection from private equity (PE) firm Mercury Capital has given a boost to Sydney-based Novotech’s expansion plans for the Asia Pacific region.

After posting more disappointing sales for Qsymia, Vivus has succumbed to shareholder pressure and revealed it is in partnering talks with big pharma firms for the weight loss pill.

US-based clinical research organisation PRA has opened a new facility in Swansea that will enable the company substantially to expand its clinical informatics resources in the Welsh city.

Shire has linked up with the USA’s Nimbus Discovery to develop small molecule oral drugs for several rare genetic diseases.

The firms say that the goal of the collaboration is to use Nimbus’ computational chemistry approach to discover disease-altering therapies   for lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). Nimbus says that many LSDs remain untreated “because of challenges in creating drugs that can effectively reach the disease site”, and the partners hope to develop “the first small molecule agents designed to penetrate inaccessible tissues while offering the convenience of an orally-administered pill”.

The partners are keeping their cards very close to their chest, saying that the collaboration is the result of a joint assessment of a series of rare disease targets “with significant unmet medical need [and] one target was ultimately chosen to be the research focus”. No financial details have been disclosed either, though Nimbus is tasked to deliver a drug candidate that is ready to enter late preclinical studies and will pocket preclinical, development and commercial stage milestones. 

__Shire is already a major player in the LSDs area, with the likes of Replagal (agalsidase alfa) for Fabry disease, Vpriv (velaglucerase alfa) for Gaucher’s disease and the Hunter Syndrome therapy Elaprase (idursulfase). However, all these are enzyme replacement therapies which, like their competitors, are administered by intravenous infusion and oral treatments for LSDs are seen as a very attractive option.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co is to acquire Inviragen, a USA-based privately-held vaccines specialist, for up to $250 million.

TFS (Trial Form Support) International, a full-service contract research organisation based in Lund, Sweden, has ramped up its capabilities for oncology and vaccine studies, as well as raising its profile in the North American market, by acquiring fellow CRO Beardsworth Consulting Group (BCG) for an undisclosed sum.

Lundbeck has launched Selincro in the UK, giving patients access to the first new drug for alcohol dependence in more than a decade.

The UK Government’s plans to change medicines pricing “could make it harder for sick people to get treatment” according to a health think-tank.

The idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) therapy market across the US and European Union (EU) will be worth more than $1.1 billion by 2017, and pharma companies could stand to benefit handsomely if they can add to the limited knowledge of the disease, says new research.

Almirall has posted its financials for the first quarter and while profits sank, the Spanish drugmaker has high hopes for the second half of the year.

A new spin-out firm from Liverpool-based Redx Pharma has been launched at AstraZeneca’s down-sized R&D site in Alderley Park.

Shares in Baxter took a downturn yesterday after it emerged its immunodeficiency drug Gammagard failed to offer any benefit to patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), despite having shown great promise in earlier trials.

At long last, Eisai and Arena Pharmaceuticals have been given the go-ahead to launch their anti-obesity drug Belviq in the USA.

Ranbaxy Laboratories has posted a slump in earnings for the first quarter, compared with the like, year-earlier period when it reaped the benefits of having exclusivity to sell a generic version of the blockbuster cholesterol-lowerer Lipitor in the USA.