Since Merck secured approval for kidney cancer pill and blockbuster hopeful Welireg (belzutifan) in August of 2021, sales have grown slowly but surely. With a second FDA nod on Thursday for a much larger patient population, the company can anticipate a more pronounced upswing in revenue from the hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2a) inhibitor. The U.S. regulator has given a thumbs up for Welireg to treat relapsed or refractory renal cell carcinoma (RCC) for adult patients who have not responded to a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and who have also been treated with a vascular endothelial growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGF-TK1). Welireg becomes the first drug in its class for patients with advanced RCC and the first novel-class treatment in the indication since 2015, Merck noted. The nod comes on top of its original approval to treat the rare von Hippel-Lindau disease, a hereditary condition that causes tumor growth in ...
About a year after Arcutis Biotherapeutics unveiled positive data on roflumilast foam at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology congress 2022, the company has clinched a second FDA OK. Late Friday, Arcutis’ roflumilast—now approved in both cream and foam form under the brand name Zoryve—passed muster with U.S. regulators to treat seborrheic dermatitis in patients ages 9 and older. Arcutis has previously estimated there are more than 10 million people in the U.S. with seborrheic dermatitis, which causes red patches on the skin covered with large, flaking scales and a persistent itch. The disease most often affects parts of the body with oil-producing glands, such as the scalp, face, upper chest and back. Back in July 2022, roflumilast’s cream formulation won the company’s first approval in plaque psoriasis. In both its forms, roflumilast targets phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4), an intracellular enzyme that boosts production of pro-inflammatory mediators and decreases production of ...
In a pivotal move towards addressing one of the world’s most underrecognized health challenges, the World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the inclusion of noma (cancrum oris or gangrenous stomatitis) in its official list of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This decision, which was recommended by the 17th meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD), underscores WHO’s commitment to expanding health services to the world’s most vulnerable populations. Noma, a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face, primarily affects malnourished young children (between the ages of 2 and 6 years) in regions of extreme poverty. It starts as an inflammation of the gums, which, if not treated early, spreads quickly to destroy facial tissues and bones. It frequently leads to death, with survivors suffering severe disfigurement. Accurate estimation of the number of noma cases is challenging due to the rapid progression of the disease ...
Harbour BioMed’s Wholly-owned Subsidiary, Nona Biosciences, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Pfizer Inc. for the global clinical development and commercialization of Nona Biosciences’ MSLN-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), HBM9033. Under the terms of the agreement, Nona Biosciences will receive a total of up to $53 million in upfront and near-term payments, with the potential for additional payments of up to $1.05 billion upon achieving certain development and commercial milestones. Nona Biosciences is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales ranging from high single digits to high teens. “We are delighted to collaborate with Pfizer, a company that is committed to developing high-impact medicines for people living with cancer,” said Jingsong Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of Nona Biosciences. “This agreement represents a significant milestone in the advancement of our proprietary Harbour Mice® platform and the ADC ecosystem, affirming Nona’s robust capabilities and expertise ...
On December 15, 2023, BIO-THERA Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced that it had received a Notice of Approval of Drug Clinical Trial from the State Drug Administration, which approved the application for a Phase II/III clinical trial of the investigational drug BAT1308 injection in combination with platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of advanced or recurrent mismatch-modification-repaired protein-deficient (dMMR) endometrial cancer. BAT1308 is a humanized anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody independently developed by BIO-THERA, which belongs to IgG4κ subtype and is expressed by Chinese hamster ovary cells.PD-1 is mainly expressed by activated T-lymphocytes, and is an inhibitory immune checkpoint.PD-L1 and PD-L2 are the two ligands of PD-1, and when PD-L1 or PD-L2 bind to PD-1, it can inhibit immune activation of T-cells through the downstream signaling pathway to inhibit immune activation of T cells. It has been found that a variety of tumor cells can express PD-L1 and PD-L2 and bind to PD-1 ...
On December 16th, during the 18th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Hypertension, the National Launching Meeting of Sacubitril Valsartan Sodium Tablets (trade name: Yixintan®), which is exclusively commercialized by Fosun Pharmaceuticals and researched, developed and manufactured by Nanjing Fangshenghe Pharmaceuticals, was held grandly in Shanghai. The approved indications of Yixintan® (sacubitril valsartan sodium tablets) are for use in adult patients with chronic heart failure (NYHA class II-IV, LVEF ≤ 40%) with reduced ejection fraction, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure; and for the treatment of essential hypertension. The product is a first-line drug for the treatment of heart failure and hypertension with an innovative crystalline form with independent intellectual property rights. After the launching ceremony, a press conference on the national launching of Yixintan® was held, in which experts appeared and answered questions from the media about the current situation of cardiovascular prevention and treatment, the ...
Science has named the development of glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and this year’s discovery that these drugs can blunt obesity-associated health problems as its 2023 Breakthrough of The Year. Although obesity’s causes span genetic, physiological, environmental, and social factors, as a medical problem, obesity’s risks can be life-threatening – including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, liver disease, and certain cancers. Drug treatments for obesity have had “a sorry past, one often intertwined with social pressure to lose weight and the widespread belief that excess weight reflects weak willpower,” writes Jennifer Couzin-Frankel in the Breakthrough news feature. However, a new class of drug therapies for weight loss has emerged and is showing promising results. Originally developed to treat diabetes nearly 20 years ago, the excitement surrounding GLP-1 drugs to treat obesity has recently exploded. And this year, two landmark clinical trials that showed in large numbers that GLP-1 agonists produced meaningful ...
Colorectal cancer (CRC) stands as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and is particularly prevalent in men under 50. Notably, there’s been a shift in CRC affecting younger individuals, with 20% of cases in 2019 occurring in people 54 and younger, a rise from 11% in 1995. Additionally, there has been an increase in advanced disease incidence, particularly in individuals under 65. A significant number of CRC cases and deaths can be prevented through regular screening, surveillance, and quality treatment. Now, a new technology offers convenient at-home test collection with the highest sensitivity available for non-invasive CRC screening. Geneoscopy Inc. (St. Louis, MO, USA) has developed a multi-target stool RNA (mt-sRNA) biomarker panel for detecting precancerous lesions and colorectal cancer. RNA, a dynamic molecule crucial for protein synthesis, adapts to disease conditions and regulates numerous genes in cellular processes. Changes in RNA pathways are linked to ...
BY SEAN WHOOLEY Imperative Care announced today that it initiated a first-in-human clinical study for its novel neurovascular stent system. Campbell, California-based Imperative Care designed the system to only require single antiplatelet therapy for patients undergoing stent-assisted treatment of wide-neck intracranial aneurysms. Dr. Nobuyuki Sakai successfully treated the first three patients enrolled in the study. Sakai serves as director of neurosurgery at the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital in Kobe City, Hyogo, Japan. All three patients underwent planned procedures for stent-assisted coiling of unruptured aneurysms. Imperative Care reported all three patient discharges from the hospital within 48 hours on an aspirin-only antiplatelet regimen. The company reported no device- or procedure-related complications, including clot formation. “The ability for neurovascular implants to avoid dual antiplatelet drug therapy, which carries the risk of serious bleeding complications, will be an important step forward,” said Sakai said in a news release. “I am encouraged ...
BY SEAN WHOOLEY The ThermoCool SmartTouch dual-energy ablation catheter could offer a treatment option for AFib. [Image courtesy of Biosense Webster]Johnson & Johnson’s Biosense Webster today announced the first completed patient cases in a study of its dual-energy ablation catheter. Biosense Webster designed the ThermoCool SmartTouch SF to deliver both radiofrequency (RF) and pulsed-field ablation (PFA) energy. The SmartPulse pivotal study evaluates the dual-energy system in the treatment of paroxysmal AFib. AFib ablation has become a hotbed for innovation in recent years. Medtronic stands as one competitor after its $1 billion Affera acquisition, plus the FDA yesterday approved its PulseSelect PFA system for treating AFib. Boston Scientific and its Farapulse system represent another exciting option in the space. The company expects FDA approval sometime next year. Dr. David Newton of Memorial Health University Physicians Heart Care and Dr. Andrea Natale of Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, St. David’s Medical Center, performed ...
Go to Page Go
your submission has already been received.
OK
Please enter a valid Email address!
Submit
The most relevant industry news & insight will be sent to you every two weeks.