PharmaFocus Today – Page 252 – media

Korean CDMO Lotte Biologics buys land, sets out to build 3 new plants by 2030

Aiming to hit a corporate value of around $15 billion by the end of the decade, Korean CDMO Lotte Biologics has laid out plans to stand up three new manufacturing facilities in the same time frame. Lotte this week unveiled a land purchase agreement with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority in Incheon, Korea. With the new real estate, Lotte plans to build out three separate bio plants by 2030. Each plant will be capable of cranking out 120 kiloliters of antibody drugs for a total planned production capacity of 360 kiloliters, Lotte explained in a press release. The company is also weighing whether to add small-scale bioreactors for clinical material production. Plants 1, 2 and 3 are expected to be completed in 2025, 2027 and 2030, respectively. Once full-scale operations kick off around 2034, Lotte will boast 400 kiloliters of total production capacity, the company said. Groundbreaking for the ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 10, 2023
FDA panel says Amgen’s Phase III lung cancer KRAS drug data is unreliable

AUS Food and Drug Administration (FDA’s) Oncology Advisory Committee (AdCom) has raised questions about the upcoming decision to grant traditional approval of Amgen’s high-profile KRAS G12C inhibitor Lumakras (sotorasib). Lumakras was granted accelerated approval in May 2021 for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with KRAS G12C mutations, who had received at least one prior systemic therapy. This approval was based on the CodeBreaK 200 trial (NCT04303780) of sotorasib versus docetaxel. Lumakras generated $285m in sales last year worldwide, according to Amgen’s 2022 annual report to shareholders. The latest AdCom questioned the reliability of the data In the briefing document released by the FDA from the meeting, several features of the Codebreak trial were listed that were inconsistent with a sufficient well-controlled trial. The main issue noted was that too many patients were allowed to swap between the treatment and control arms ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 10, 2023
Ocular launches ocular implant trial to combat macular degeneration

US biopharmaceutical firm, Ocular Therapeutix has announced the start of its first clinical trial of an intravitreal eye implant intended to combat macular degeneration. Named OTX-TKI, the axitinib intravitreal implant is intended to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). Alongside the announcement the company has requested a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as to how the trial is designed. Overall, the trial will recruit approximately 300 evaluable wet AMD patients. Antony Mattessich, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix said: “With the activation of our first clinical site in the US, we believe we are on target to enrol our first subject before year-end. “The trial is a crucial step forward for our clinical program as we make progress toward our goal of bringing a transformative new treatment that can truly make a difference for wet AMD to patients coping with vision loss.” The company ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 10, 2023
Catheter ablation beats drugs in J&J retrospective study of AFib heart failure risk

Dive Brief Catheter ablation is better than antiarrhythmic drugs at cutting heart failure risk as a second-line treatment for atrial fibrillation patients, according to a retrospective study funded by Johnson & Johnson. The study, which was published in Heart Rhythm O2, compared the incidence of heart failure in a claims database to evaluate whether patients who have previously tried an antiarrhythmic drug should receive catheter ablation or a different medicine. Across a dataset of more than 18,000 patients, people who received catheter ablation had a 57% lower risk of developing heart failure than their counterparts on antiarrhythmic drugs. Dive Insight In 2019, a randomized clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and medtech companies including J&J’s Biosense Webster found catheter ablation is no better at reducing the composite risk of death and major cardiovascular events than antiarrhythmic drugs. However, the trial linked ablation to a lower risk of ...
- Source: drugdu
- 141
- October 9, 2023
More walkable neighborhoods have a lower incidence of obesity-related cancers among women

In a recent study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers have found that women living in neighborhoods characterized as walkable, based on factors like population density and accessibility to destinations, have a reduced risk of obesity-related cancers, including postmenopausal breast cancer, as well as multiple myeloma, ovarian, and endometrial cancers. Background Obesity is a growing health concern, with over 40% of adults in the United States being obese or overweight. This condition also significantly increases the risk of various cancers, particularly among women. About 55% of diagnosed cancers in women are linked to obesity, while the figure is approximately 24% for men. Inactivity among women is believed to further exacerbate the risk of obesity-related cancers. Increasing evidence highlights walking as a moderate-intensity physical activity that contributes significantly to recommended exercise levels for maintaining good health. Recent research has focused on how the built environment affects physical activity and, ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023
Amgen Fails to Secure FDA Adcomm Support for Full Lumakras Approval

By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Amgen’s office in Massachusetts/iStock, hapabapa The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee on Thursday voted against Amgen, which is seeking to convert the accelerated approval of its oral G12C KRAS inhibitor Lumakras (sotorasib) to full approval in non-small cell lung cancer. In a 10-2 vote, the panel of external experts found that Amgen’s progression-free survival (PFS) data from the Phase III confirmatory CodeBreaK 200 study could not be reliably interpreted. In particular, the adcomm noted the high number of study dropouts, the small sample size and potentially biased behavior of the trial’s investigators. “No one expects a perfect [randomized controlled trial] but what we hope for is a small number of issues in trial conduct and an effect large enough to withstand the uncertainties caused by those issues,” committee member Mark Conaway, professor at the Division of Translational Research and Applied Statistics at the University of Virginia ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023
Merck’s Keytruda Poised for Bladder Cancer Expansion with New Phase III Data

By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Merck signage outside its office in California/iStock, hapabapa Merck on Thursday reported that its blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) met one of its dual primary endpoints in the Phase III AMBASSADOR trial in muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma. Details of the study were limited but Merck said that at a pre-specified interim analysis review Keytruda treatment led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival compared with simple observation. AMBASSADOR is ongoing and will continue to assess the effects of Keytruda on overall survival (OS), the study’s second primary endpoint. The promising initial data from AMBASSADOR point to the “potential of Keytruda to prevent recurrence” in patients who had undergone surgery, Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of late-stage oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, said in a statement. AMBASSADOR, also known as KEYNOTE-123, is a randomized and open-label study enrolling approximately ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023
AbbVie Completes Acquisition of Mitokinin

Addition strengthens neuroscience pipeline, company says. Image Credit: Adobe Stock Images/chinnarach AbbVie announced that it has exercised its exclusive right and completed the acquisition of Mitokinin, a biotech company focused on developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Under terms of the acquisition, AbbVie will pay Mitokinin shareholders $110 million at closing for the acquisition of Mitokinin, with shareholders remaining eligible for potential additional payments of up to $545 million upon the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones related to Pink1, Mitokinin’s lead compound designed to address mitochondrial dysfunction that is believed to be a major contributing factor to Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis and progression. “Parkinson’s disease continues to be a major unmet medical need, impacting patients, caregivers and society. With this acquisition, we are excited to grow our neuroscience portfolio and explore a potential new treatment option for PD,” said Jonathon Sedgwick, PhD, VP, global head of discovery research, AbbVie. “While ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023
GE HealthCare launches AI-enhanced point-of-care ultrasound

BY SEAN WHOOLEY Caption Guidance on the Venue Go system in use. [Image courtesy of GE HealthCare] GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC)+ announced today that it launched its Venue point-of-care ultrasound systems with AI-driven Caption Guidance. Chicago-based GE HealthCare says the Venue family is the first of its ultrasound guidance to include Caption Guidance. The company added the AI-driven imaging guidance to its arsenal when it acquired Caption Health earlier this year. Caption Guidance, an optional add-on, offers new capabilities at the point of care with diagnostic-quality cardiac images. It supports clinicians in a wide range of clinical settings, like emergency departments, critical care wards and anesthesiology. GE HealthCare says the Caption Guidance technology offers clinicians step-by-step instructions to acquire ultrasound for cardiac assessments. It helps providers — even those who aren’t ultrasound experts — by addressing training and skill barriers to ultrasound usage. This, in turn, expands ultrasound access. According ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023
Nanobiotix shares promising results for radiotherapy enhancer in advanced pancreatic cancer

Nanobiotix has shared positive new data from an early-stage study evaluating a drug designed to enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Results from the phase 1 study of NBTXR3, which is being conducted as part of an ongoing collaboration between Nanobiotix and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, were presented at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with a poor prognosis and remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. For more than 90% of patients with locally advanced disease who are not eligible for surgery, there are few treatment options with curative intent, and the five-year overall survival rate for patients with unresectable PDAC remains less than 5%. Radiotherapy is one of the most common treatment modalities for cancer, with approximately 50% of patients undergoing it at ...
- Source: drugdu
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- October 9, 2023

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