Allergan (NYSE:AGN) said today that it acquired Chase Pharmaceuticals for an upfront payment of $125 million, expanding the Dublin-based company’s neurological portfolio. Washington, D.C.-based Chase is developing a combination therapy of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and a cholinergic blocker in the hopes of improving cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitors available on the […]
Pharmaceutical
Immunovaccine’s targeted ovarian cancer therapy wins orphan drug status in EU
Immunovaccine Inc. said today that the European Medicines Agency granted orphan drug designation for its immunotherapy candidate for ovarian cancer in the E.U. Orphan drug designation is granted to medicines intended for disease with a prevalence no greater than 5 in 10,000 people. According to the Nova Scotia-based company, ovarian cancer affects 3 per 10,000 […]
Topical immunotherapy combo effective against early skin cancer
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have shown that a combination of 2 topical drugs can trigger an immune response against precancerous skin lesions. The study was published yesterday in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The 2 drugs, calcipotriol and 5-fluorouracil, have been in use for years – topical 5-fluorouracil […]
Mylan declines to testify at Senate committee hearing
Mylan (NDSQ:MYL) declined to testify at a U.S. Senate committee regarding its $465 million pending settlement to deal with charges that it underpaid government healthcare programs when it misclassified its EpiPen injector as a generic. The Canonsburg, Pa.-based company penned a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Nov. 18, saying it would not testify because […]
Ivenix CEO Randle looks to reboot the infusion pump
Ivenix CEO Stuart Randle began his foray into drug pump delivery systems at Baxter in 1988, when he led the company’s effort to develop the 1st needle-free IV system. More than 20 years later, when he was approached about the corner office at Ivenix, Randle revisited the infusion pump industry and saw that the technology had not kept up […]
GSK files for FDA approval of inhaled triple-combo therapy for COPD
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) and Innoviva (NSDQ:INVA) said today that GSK filed a regulatory submission with the FDA for the once-daily, closed triple combination therapy fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (FF/UMEC/VI) for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The triple-combo therapy includes 3 drugs: fluticasone furoate, an inhaled corticosteroid; umeclidinium, a long-acting muscarinic antagonist; vilanterol, a long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonist. The medicines […]
Intarcia seeks FDA nod for 1st drug to use Medici drug delivery system
Intarcia Therapeutics said today that it submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA for its injection-free ITCA 650 candidate, the 1st drug to use Intarcia’s Medici drug delivery system to treat Type II diabetes. The ITCA 650 enables subcutaneous delivery of exenatide using a match-sized osmotic pump placed under the skin in an in-office procedure. With […]
Mallinckrodt touts data for Ofirmev injected acetaminophen
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:MNK) today released results from a clinical pharmacokinetic study evaluating the effect of IV morphine on the absorption of oral acetaminophen, touting the effectiveness of its Ofirmev IV administered acetaminophen over orally administered acetaminophen in adjunct to IV morphine. The results were presented at this year’s Pain Medicine Meeting of the American Society of […]
Report finds pressure from Congress does not budge drug prices
Committees in Congress have issued more than a dozen subpoenas to drug-makers for alleged price-hiking in the last 2 years, with members of the House and Senate collecting hundreds of thousands of documents on pricing strategies and marketing tactics. They’ve put pharmaceutical execs through more than 16 hours of public testimony. But an Associated Press review shows that pressure from Washington […]
New drug capsule delivers medicine for weeks after swallowing
Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spurred by a challenge from Bill Gates, developed a star-shaped drug capsule that can gradually release medication and stay in the stomach for to 2 weeks after being swallowed. The study, published yesterday in Science Translational Medicine, described the team’s work using the device to deliver an anti-parasitic drug, invermectin, which […]
DBV, BioNet-Asia study needle-free pertussis booster vaccination
DBV Technologies (NSDQ:DBVT) and BioNet-Asia said today that the independent Data & Safety Monitoring Board positively reviewed DBV’s needle-free vaccine patch technology, Viaskin, and that enrollment in a Phase I trial for booster immunization against pertussis will continue into the 2nd dosing cohort. The Viaskin pertussis booster vaccination program will test the ability of DBV’s needle-free vaccine […]