SHANGHAI, Jan. 07, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Shanghai Argo Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Argo”), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of next-generation RNAi therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into two exclusive license and collaboration agreements with Novartis PHARMA AG (“Novartis”). Under the first agreement, Argo has granted Novartis exclusive global licenses to develop and commercialize a Phase 1 stage program. The first agreement also includes a research collaboration and Novartis also receives an option to potentially license compounds directed against up to two additional targets for cardiovascular disease treatment. Under the second agreement, Argo granted Novartis an exclusive ex-Greater China license to develop and commercialize a Phase 1/2a clinical-stage program for cardiovascular disease treatment. Discovered and developed with Argo’s cutting-edge RNAi platform technology, these clinical-stage assets offer industry-leading efficacy and durability therapies. The transactions have a combined potential value of up to $4.165 billion for Argo and ...
San Francisco—Nearly all top cancer drugmakers have struck deals in the sizzling antibody-drug conjugate field—but not Novartis. On Monday, the Swiss pharma’s CEO Vas Narasimhan explained how he’s resisted the temptation. The answer is radioligand therapies, Narasimhan said Monday during the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in response to a question from Fierce Pharma. “We have a long history within research of ADCs, but we have not been successful,” Narasimhan said. “To be clear, part of our focus strategy is looking at places where we think we can create long-term sustainable leadership. And we are investing in radioligand therapies.” ADCs and radioligand therapies are similar in that both technologies act as guided missiles. For ADCs, the guiding force is an antibody, and the cancer-killing payload is a chemotherapy. A radioligand therapy uses a ligand to target cancer cells and kills them with a therapeutic radioisotope. Radiotherapies may have a safety ...
Recently, a phase II, non-randomized study of brain radiotherapy combined with pyrrolitinib and capecitabine for the treatment of brain metastasis in HER2-positive breast cancer (BROPTIMA study) was published online in JAMA Oncology, an authoritative international oncology journal (IF: 28.4). Prof. Guo Xiaomao and Prof. Yu Xiaoli of the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University are the co-corresponding authors of this article, and Prof. Yang Zhaozhi and Prof. Meng Jin are the co-authors. The results of this study showed that the one-year central nervous system-progression-free survival (CNS-PFS) rate for combination therapy reached 74.9%, with a median CNS-PFS of up to 18 months and a central nervous system-objective remission rate (CNS-ORR) of 85%. In terms of safety, with a median follow-up of 17.3 months, the neurological status of most patients remained stable. This is the first prospective clinical study exploring pyrrolitinib in combination with brain radiotherapy for the treatment of patients with ...
Don Tracy, Associate Editor Company cites potential safety risks for patients who ignore the intended indication of Mounjaro and Zepbound. In a letter to the public, Eli Lilly and Company warned against the use of its medicines for cosmetic weight loss. Citing the fact that neither Mounjaro or Zepbound are indicated for cosmetic purposes, the pharma company stressed that both are intended to treat serious diseases, with Mounjaro focusing on type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity in specific BMI ranges of a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater or those who are overweight with a BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2 or greater. Additionally, caution is advised for patients with severe gastrointestinal conditions and the medications should only be prescribed by licensed healthcare professionals. “Patients should consult with their healthcare providers to determine whether Mounjaro or Zepbound is right for them,” the company stated in a press release. “Mounjaro and Zepbound ...
Postoperative pain is acute pain that occurs immediately after surgery. Inadequate management of postoperative pain may lead to a variety of psychological and physiological negative effects, such as persistent pain and the possibility of turning into a chronic state. Opioids are the most commonly used drugs for the treatment of moderate to severe acute and chronic pain. Classical μ-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists, including morphine and fentanyl, are among the more potent analgesic classes of opioids and can activate both the G protein-coupled pathway and the β-arrestin2 signaling pathway.Activation of the G protein-coupled pathway is conducive to a potent central analgesic effect, whereas activation of the β-arrestin2 signaling pathway causes gastrointestinal side effects, such as gastrointestinal dysphoria. Side effects. Currently, there are no biased MOR agonists with good analgesic effects and low incidence of adverse effects on the market in China, and there is an unmet clinical need. In December 2023, ...
BY SEAN WHOOLEY Nalu Medical announced today that it closed a $65 million equity financing to support its minimally invasive neurostimulation product. Carlsbad, California–based Nalu had its round led by new investor Novo Holdings. All existing significant investors — including Gilde Healthcare, MVM Partners, Endeavor Vision, Decheng Capital, Longitude Capital, Advent Life Sciences, Pura Vida and Aperture Venture Partners — participated, too. Nalu plans to use the proceeds to accelerate commercial growth and expand clinical and health-economic evidence. It also wants to use the funds to continue product development and scale operations. The company’s FDA-cleared spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation technology treats patients with chronic neuropathic pain. It delivers gentle electrical pulses to the nervous system to modulate pain signals before they reach the brain. Nalu system includes a fully featured, battery-free, miniaturized implantable pulse generator (IPG). An externally worn therapy disc wirelessly powers the IPG and ...
Eli Lilly has created a website to make it easier for patients to access medicines including its hot obesity drug Zepbound. The website, LillyDirect, combines telehealth and pharmacy services to provide access to Lilly’s portfolio of diabetes, migraine and obesity medicines. Companies including the weight loss program providers Noom and WeightWatchers have begun offering telehealth services to help people access Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Drugmakers have kept in their lane, though, developing and manufacturing medicines without getting into the business of connecting patients to physicians and delivering products to their homes. LillyDirect marks a shift in strategy, at least for Lilly. The website features sections to help people access healthcare, either remotely or in person, and details of how to send prescriptions to LillyDirect Pharmacy Solutions to get home deliveries of Lilly drugs. Lilly CEO David Ricks set out the thinking behind LillyDirect in a statement, framing the ...
Use of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s popular diabetes and weight loss drugs come with warnings about a rare intestinal blockage condition called ileus, which can be life threatening. Could cautions about more common side effects soon be added to the labels of popular treatments such as Novo’s Ozempic and Lilly’s Mounjaro? On Tuesday, the FDA revealed that it is investigating patient reports of suicidal thoughts and hair loss from the use of the blood sugar-modulating products. The U.S. regulator also is looking into cases of aspiration, a condition often associated with surgery in which people breathe food, liquids, vomit or saliva into their lungs. The investigation was triggered by information gathered on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), a database that allows the regulator to track potential problems by collecting side effect reports from patients and healthcare providers. Each quarter, the FDA posts a list of drugs that ...
Hearing loss affects approximately 40 million American adults, yet only one in 10 people who need hearing aids use them, research shows. Those who don’t use hearing aids but should may want to make wearing them one of their New Year’s resolutions, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC published today in The Lancet Healthy Longevity. Janet Choi, MD, MPH, an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine and lead researcher of the study said, “We found that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24% lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them. These results are exciting because they suggest that hearing aids may play a protective role in people’s health and prevent early death.” Previous research has shown that untreated hearing loss can result in a reduced life span (as well as other poor outcomes such as social isolation, depression and dementia). ...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) tool, designed to interpret medical images with exceptional clarity, is set to revolutionize the way clinicians approach disease diagnosis and image analysis. This advanced tool, named iStar (Inferring Super-Resolution Tissue Architecture), was developed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA). It can assist healthcare professionals in diagnosing and treating cancers that might otherwise remain undetected. iStar offers an in-depth view of individual cells and a broader look at the full range of human gene activity, potentially revealing cancer cells that were nearly invisible earlier. This tool could play a crucial role in confirming whether cancer surgeries have fully removed malignancies and provide automatic annotations for microscopic images, marking a significant leap toward molecular-level disease diagnosis. One of the standout capabilities of iStar is its automatic identification of crucial anti-tumor immune formations known as “tertiary lymphoid structures,” ...
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