AbbVie announced the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has issued a positive opinion for its migraine medication Qulipta (atogepant). Once the CHMP has issued a positive opinion, the EMA will send a recommendation to the European Commission (EC) to approve it. While not a guarantee, a positive CHMP opinion is generally a good indication that a drug is likely to be approved. In a June 2023 statement, AbbVie claims that full approval from the European Commission (EC) would position Qulipta as the only daily oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant) treatment for episodic and chronic migraines available in the EU. Qulipta is approved for use in the US. In 2021, it managed to secure FDA approval to treat episodic migraine, receiving further approval this year to also treat chronic migraine. The positive opinion is based on Phase III trial results submitted ...
Bayer recently laid out its ambition to achieve $10 billion in sales from its oncology business by 2030 and become a top 10 cancer drug player. To get there, the company is looking outside for a “midsize acquisition,” Bayer’s oncology chief Christine Roth said.Right now, Bayer’s Nubeqa leads the charge in the company’s oncology department, with its sales projected to peak at more than 3 billion euros. In addition, the company’s acquisitions of Vividion Therapeutics, BlueRock Therapeutics and Noria Therapeutics in recent years have bolstered its research capabilities. “We’ve done a lot of activity to fill our early pipeline,” Roth said in an interview with Fierce Pharma on the sidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2023 annual meeting. “But if we want to achieve that top 10 spot in the next four to six years, it’s going to take the right midsize acquisition to get there.” Roth agreed ...
Earlier this year, when Astellas announced that Naoki Okamura was taking over as CEO, the Japanese company said that 2023 was the right time for it to “go on the aggressive to further stimulate growth.”It took Okamura less than a month into his tenure—which began April 1—to act on the company’s game plan. On April 29, he struck the largest acquisition in Astellas’ history, a $5.9 billion buyout of Iveric Bio. With the New Jersey-based biotech two months away from an FDA decision on its geographic atrophy (GA) eye disease candidate Zimura, Astellas hopes to become a major player in a new arena. “We had been closely watching the lead program for Iveric for a very long time, probably seven, eight years,” Okamura said in an interview with Fierce Pharma. “Because the modality of that project is very new to us, we were kind of hesitant to do any partnerships ...
Two years after the initial COVID-19 vaccine push swept across the globe, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine partner BioNTech is heading to court in its home country of Germany to defend itself against allegations that its shot caused injuries. This lawsuit comes from a German healthcare worker who seeks at least 150,000 euros ($161,500) in damages for alleged bodily harm, plus compensation for unspecified material damage, Reuters reports. The woman claims she suffered from upper-body pain, swollen extremities, fatigue and a sleeping disorder as a result of taking the Comirnaty vaccine. The plaintiff’s attorneys at the firm Rogert & Ulbrich will challenge the vaccine’s positive risk-benefit profile as assessed by European Union regulators and vaccine assessment agencies, according to the news service. Under German drug laws, drugmakers are only liable for side-effect damages if “medical science” can prove their meds have an incorrect label or cause disproportionate harm relative to their benefits, ...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff on Monday said updated Covid boosters should target XBB omicron subvariants for the upcoming fall and winter vaccination campaign. The U.S. should use a monovalent vaccine targeting either XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, or XBB.2.3, collectively the dominant strains nationwide, the staff said in a briefing document. The FDA staff made the conclusion ahead of a meeting on Thursday, when a panel of external advisors to the agency will recommend a strain for new Covid shots to target later this year. There is no set date for when the vaccination campaign will begin. Vaccine manufacturers will be expected to update their shots once that strain is selected. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are already developing versions of their respective vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 and other circulating variants. The upcoming strain selection will be crucial to those companies’ abilities to compete in the fall, when the U.S. is expected to ...
Purolite, a subsidiary of Ecolab that produces purification resins for drug manufacturing, earmarked at least $190 million to build a production plant that will employ 170 workers.The facility, which will produce a variety of products for the healthcare and drug manufacturing industries, will be located in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, according to a June 6 press release from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office. Resins are used to purify process streams during drug manufacturing and are considered critical to final product quality although they are not part of the finished product. The facility is expected to be completed by the first half of 2025. It will represent the first site in Purolite’s U.S. biologics division. “Purolite’s new facility will help bring security of supply to our global pharmaceutical and biotech customers, enabling lifesaving drugs to reach patients fast,” Hayley Crowe, Purolite’s senior vice president and general manager, said in the release. Purolite received a ...
Seeking to launch their respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prevention antibody for infants later this year, Sanofi and AstraZeneca have cleared one more regulatory hurdle.Thursday, experts on the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 21 to 0 that nirsevimab boasts a favorable benefit-risk profile to protect against RSV-associated lower respiratory disease in infants born during or entering their first RSV season. On a separate question of whether the drug has a favorable benefit-risk profile in children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable through their second RSV season, the vote was 19 to 2 in favor of the drug. “Most babies hospitalized with RSV are born at term and healthy, which is why interventions specifically designed to protect all infants are likely to result in the greatest impact,” Sanofi’s executive vice president of vaccines, Thomas Triomphe, said in a Thursday statement. “We are encouraged by the Advisory Committee’s positive ...
By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN CNN — Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday to endorse a monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants and some young toddlers from RSV. Members of the agency’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 21-0 that the benefit-risk profile of nirsevimab was favorable in infants and 19-2 that it was favorable in children up to 24 months who are vulnerable to severe respiratory syncytial virus. Next, the FDA will consider the advice of the advisers and decide whether to approve the treatment. The monoclonal antibody, nirsevimab, was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. It’s designed to be given to infants in a single shot at birth or just before the start of a baby’s first RSV season, or as a larger dose in a second RSV season in children who are highly vulnerable. If approved, it will be the first single-dose preventative treatment for all ...
GSK’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine has been approved by the European Commission (EC) for the prevention of RSV-caused lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) in adults aged 60 years and older. The EC’s decision, which follows a recent recommendation from the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee, makes Arexvy the first RSV vaccine for older adults to be granted European Marketing Authorisation. RSV is a common contagious virus characterised by several mild, cold-like symptoms. Although most people can recover within a week or two, older adults are at a high risk for severe disease. This is partly due to age-related decline in immunity. RSV can also exacerbate other conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and chronic heart failure. Overall, RSV infections in older adults account for over 270,000 hospitalisations and approximately 20,000 in-hospital deaths each year in Europe. GSK’s EU application was supported by positive results from its phase ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Cancer patient in bed looking out window / iStock, Ridofranz The entry of biosimilars promotes healthy market competition. It can reduce the prices of branded biologic medicines, according to a new study from the University of Southern California’s Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. The study, published online Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs, focused on Genentech’s (Roche) breast cancer treatment Herceptin (trastuzumab) and its five biosimilar competitors that entered the U.S. market starting in 2019: Amgen’s Kanjinti, Viatris’ Ogivri, Pfizer’s Trazimera, Teva’s Herzuma and Organon’s Ontruzant. Study results showed that when Herceptin’s first biosimilar competitor—Kanjinti—hit the market, its average price dropped around 21%, from $101 to $80 per 10 mg. By the second quarter of 2022, toward the end of the study’s analysis period, biosimilars maintained an average sales price of 28% to 58% of Herceptin’s pre-competition average sales price. “Trastuzumab is ...
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