The treatment is the first oral GPCR receptor antagonist class recommended for NHS use The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Pfizer’s Vydura (rimegepant) as a cost-effective option for the treatment of acute migraines in adults. The recommendation marks Vydura as the first drug in the oral GPCR receptor antagonist class to be recommended for routine NHS use as treatment for the condition. Published in NICE’s draft guidance, Vydura is recommended for adults who have previously tried at least two triptant-based therapies that were ineffective, not tolerated, or contraindicated. It is also recommended after prior use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibruprofen and aspirin, and paracetamol didn’t work well enough. Triptants are a group of medicines used to treat a migraine or headache. The recommendation was based on clinical trial evidence, which showed that Vydura is more likely to reduce pain in patients within 2 ...
Depicting the plight of patients with chronic and potentially fatal diseases is always a challenge for pharma companies, but Gilead Sciences has quite literally found a novel way forward.Teaming up with British historian, presenter and writer Professor David Olusoga, OBE, Gilead is launching “From the Margins,” (PDF) in what is intended to be one of the most difficult books to read. That’s because the book has every word printed entirely in the margins of the pages in what Gilead and Prof. Olusoga see as a direct inversion of a normal book. The idea is simple: “To tell the profoundly moving personal stories of marginalized people living with HIV, Hepatitis C and cancer,” according to a statement sent to Fierce Pharma Marketing. Gilead markets drugs for all three diseases. The book is specific to Britain and being run to “to raise awareness of the issue of marginalization and health inequality in ...
The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for the treatment of adult patients with inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes. According to NICE’s final draft guidance, the injection is indicated for weekly usage in combination with diet and exercise. Clinical trials show that tirzepatide usage resulted in a substantial decline in both blood sugar levels and body weight, in comparison with insulin therapy, semaglutide or a placebo. Data also showed that tirzepatide aided between 81% and 97% of individuals in attaining improved glucose control, and 54% to 88% also showed a 5% or greater reduction in body weight. These figures were substantially higher than the comparators. The independent NICE committee provided a positive recommendation for tirzepatide after conducting additional assessments and modelling on clinical and cost-efficiency data provided by Lilly. NICE noted that 180,000 individuals with poorly managed type 2 diabetes will ...
By Mariko Oi The maker of weight-loss drug, Wegovy, has become Europe’s most valuable firm dethroning the French luxury conglomerate LVMH. Shares rose after the Danish pharmaceutical giant, Novo Nordisk, launched the popular drug in the UK. At the close of trading on Monday, the firm had a stock market valuation of $428bn (£339bn). The drug is now available in the UK public healthcare system and also on the private market. Wegovy is an obesity treatment that is taken once a week which tricks people into thinking that they are already full, so they end up eating less and losing weight. Famous personalities such as Elon Musk are among the reported users of the drug, which has captivated Hollywood and the public more widely since it was approved by regulators in the US in 2021. Wegovy and Ozempic – a diabetes treatment with similar effects – have been described as ...
The University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences has successfully developed a new model to predict the likelihood of a person developing and dying of breast cancer within ten years. The new risk-based screening model works to identify those at the highest risk of deadly cancers. Despite the ability of breast cancer screening to reduce deaths, it can sometimes lead to unnecessary treatments due to overdiagnosis when innocuous tumours are detected. In the UK, for every 10,000 women aged 50 years invited to breast screening for the next 20 years, 43 breast cancer deaths will be prevented, but 129 will be overdiagnosed. Researchers analysed anonymised data from 11.9 million women aged 20 to 90 years between 2000 and 2020 from the OResearch database. The team tested four different modelling techniques to predict breast cancer mortality risk: two traditional statistical-based models and two artificial intelligence (AI) models, all ...
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced its advice in relation to details surrounding the eligibility of this autumn’s COVID-19 booster vaccine. As the UK COVID-19 vaccination programme enters its third autumn season, the Committee has advised offering the booster to those at high risk of serious disease and who are therefore more likely to benefit from the vaccination. This includes all adults aged 65 years and older, residents in care homes for older adults, those aged six months to 64 years in a clinical risk group, those aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes for adults. The COVID-19 booster vaccine helps to protect against severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19. Dr Mary Ramsay, director of public health programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, said the COVID-19 virus is “circling more widely over the winter months, with the ...
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued a draft Appraisal Consultation Document that does not recommend CSL Behring’s Hemgenix (etranacogene dezaparvovec) gene therapy for haemophilia B. The company has been seeking approval for use of the therapy in adults with severe or moderately severe haemophilia B without a history of factor IX inhibitors. In its guidance, NICE’s evaluation committee said that while there is clear evidence that the therapy reduces the number of bleeding episodes haemophilia B patients have each year, there is not enough evidence on how well it works in the long term, meaning cost-effectiveness estimates are “uncertain”. It also cited problems with the indirect comparison between the gene therapy and factor IX replacement therapies. Haemophilia B is a genetic bleeding disorder resulting from missing or insufficient levels of blood clotting factor IX, a protein needed to produce blood clots to stop bleeding. Patients ...
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published new data showing that there were an estimated 70,649 people living in England with hepatitis C in 2022, marking a 45% decrease from the number recorded in 2015. Since 2015, NHS England has treated over 80,000 people for the infection as part of its national elimination programme. Of those treated, more than 80% were from the most deprived areas in England, which the UKHSA says highlights “the role of eliminating hepatitis C as a key driver of reducing health inequalities”. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that can cause life-threatening liver disease, including cancer. However, those infected often have no symptoms until years later when their liver has already been badly damaged. Spread through blood-to-blood contact, the virus is commonly contracted through sharing needles contaminated with the infection, but it can also be contracted through the sharing of razors or toothbrushes. Dr ...
A new talking therapy for depression has shown encouraging early signs of being more effective and cheaper to deliver than the current best practice of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). A pilot trial from the University of Exeter, funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and published in Lancet EClinical Medicine, has found Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT) could be a significant advance in depression care. A core feature of depression is anhedonia (reduced interest or pleasure) and wellbeing deficits, but current depression psychotherapies like CBT fail to adequately target these components. ADepT has been developed to pay just as much attention to building wellbeing as it does reducing depressive symptoms. Professor of Clinical Psychology, Barney Dunn, from the University of Exeter led the trial and said: “Depression is widespread and a significant contributor to global disability, resulting in extensive social and economic costs. Only ...
The number of antidepressant drugs being prescribed on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) rose again, according to a quarterly report by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). The report, which covers the months from October 2022 to December 2022, lists the number of mental health medicines prescribed in England according to the five British National Formulary (BNF) drug groups. This includes drugs that could have been dispensed in England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man of the Channel Islands. The British National Formulary classifies mental health medications into different groups based on their use. They are antidepressants, hypnotics and anxiolytics, central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs, dementia medication, and antipsychotics. In the Q3 2022-2023, period antidepressant drugs were the most prescribed drug class, totalling nearly 22 million items, a 2.67% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. The rise is part of an ...
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