News

The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of possible increased risk to the pancreas from using a class of diabetes drugs that includes blockbusters like Merck & Co’s Januvia and Novo Nordisk’s Victoza.

Biogen Idec has filed the first long-lasting Factor VIII treatment for haemophilia A with the US Food and Drug Administration.

Boehringer Ingelheim has linked up with the USA’s Presidio Pharmaceuticals to look at combinations of two of its hepatitis C treatments with one of the San Francisco-based company’s drugs.

Roche’s new breast cancer treatment Perjeta has been launched in the UK, less than ten days after it was approved by the European Medicines Agency. 

Jordan’s Hikma Pharmaceuticals has posted a strong set of financials for 2012, helped by a strong performance from its injectables division, which has attracted potential buyers.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has opened its London Innovation Centre, one of four regional hubs which the company is establishing this year in the world’s leading innovation hotspots.

US-based eClinical specialist Medrio is offering its web-based electronic data capture (EDC) software free of charge for investigator-initiated studies that are university- and/or government funded.

A former employee of US-based drug-development services company Aptuit has been successfully prosecuted by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for manipulating preclinical trial data.

The diabetes specialist Novo Nordisk has joined the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry for the first time in its history.

Astellas has been found in breach of the ABPI Code of Practice over a three-page advert in the GP magazine Pulse.

Radiant Research, the Cincinnati-based site management and clinical research company acquired by CRA Holdings in September 2012, has realigned its strategy to focus on its core site-services business following the sale of its contract research organization (CRO), Radiant Development, to fellow US company Accelovance.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has expanded its pact with The Scripps Research Institute of the USA to search for new drug targets for a variety of diseases.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with a District Court, pointing out the potential for brand-name drugmakers to “improperly” use restricted drug distribution programmes to impede generic competition.

Shire has continued its expansion into rare diseases by acquiring Sweden’s Premacure, which is developing a treatment for a potentially blinding eye disorder that affects premature babies.

AstraZeneca has responded to the warnings made earlier this week by chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies about the urgent need to combat the rise of antimicrobial resistance.