News

The US-based Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs is expecting “global repercussions” after Pfizer expanded its AAHRPP recognition to cover all of the company’s Phase II to IV clinical trials.

The German pricing watchdog IQWiG says it sees no additional benefit from Eylea in comparison to Novartis’s drug in wet age-related macular oedema.

Amgen’s investigational skin cancer treatment talimogene laherparepvec has impressed in a late-stage trial, but further survival data will be needed if it wants to gain approval.

Novartis and patients in England and Wales with advanced breast cancer will be disappointed with news that cost regulators have decided to bar access to Afinitor on the National Health Service.

It is not just recruiting and retaining patients that make rare-disease studies particularly challenging, it is also identifying and setting up the right sites, a survey of clinical development decision-makers has found.

Spanish drugmaker Almirall has said it may decide to withdraw multiple sclerosis spasticity treatment Sativex from the German market after a breakdown in talks with the country’s reimbursement authorities.

Biogen Idec has posted positive new data for its investigational multiple sclerosis drug Plegridy showing that it can help cut relapse rates over the long term.

Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled a package of measures in the Budget 2013 designed to boost the UK’s life sciences sector, including a more favourable tax environment.

Californian biopharmaceutical company Affymax could be up for grabs after the firm has been forced to fire 75% of its workforce following the recall of its only drug.

The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected Pharmaxis’ cystic fibrosis drug Bronchitol because of inadequate trial data.

Merck KGaA has been busy this week, signing a pact with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the promotion of Glucophage in China, and entering a strategic alliance with Nordic Bioscience for the development of sprifermin for osteoarthritis of the knee.

The Health Select Committee has heard about the bullying culture by a former NHS manager who was gagged by his former Strategic Health Authority. 

Firms reliant on the life science sectors have established a new ‘Science Industry Partnership’ to help develop new skills in the UK.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly have started a Phase III trial designed to show their diabetes drug Trajenta is safe and effective in patients with signs of kidney damage.

As Pfizer’s potential blockbuster arthritis drug Xeljanz (tofacitinib) prepares to come to market, a US Senator is demanding to know what US taxpayers can expect in terms of its affordability and protection of their interests, given that “taxpayer-funded research was fundamental” to the drug’s development.