Dive Brief Hamilton Medical’s recall of ventilators for a software problem was designated Class I by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency wrote in a Monday notice. Hamilton contacted customers in June after learning that its C1, C2, C3 and T1 ventilators switch to “ambient state” if used in neonates for more than 91 days without a restart. In ambient state, the device sounds an alarm and no active ventilation is provided to patients. In light of the fault, which has caused 80 complaints but no injuries or deaths, Hamilton is asking users of its ventilators to regularly restart their devices. Dive Insight Hamilton sells mechanical ventilators for use in adults, children and infants. The problem that caused the Class I recall happens when the devices “are used for long-term ventilation in neonatal group.” If the ventilation time exceeds 91 days, the devices enter ambient state, causing them ...
Seven weeks after saying it would allow generic competition for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) treatment Sirturo (bedaquiline) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), Johnson & Johnson has slashed its own drug’s price in those markets. Under the new pricing structure, J&J’s drug will cost $130 for a six-month course in LMICs, a 55% discount from its prior price. Lupin also has reduced the cost of its generic version of bedaquiline by 33% to $194. The United Nations-backed Stop TB Partnership revealed the new prices on Wednesday. Last month, J&J said it would not enforce secondary patents on Sirturo in LMICs, paving the way for generic competition in many countries around the globe. The primary patent for Sirturo—which in 2012 became the first new TB drug approved in more than four decades—expired last month. But J&J had also patented improvements to its formulation, extending its protection for Sirturo into 2027. The reduced ...
An international survey conducted by Parkinson’s Europe, developed in partnership with STADA, has revealed that people taking oral medications for Parkinson’s disease experience varying effects. The survey, financially supported by STADA’s affiliate Brittania Pharmaceuticals, involved 992 participants with advanced Parkinson’s across 53 countries. It revealed that more than 96% of respondents said that they took medication for their condition, two-thirds of which were receiving oral levodopa or another single oral therapy. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that progressively damages parts of the brain. Symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s are more complex and have a stronger effect on day-to-day life. The study revealed that 65% of respondents reported varying effects; 42% reported a partial response without the usual resolution of motor symptoms; 40% reported a delayed onset of effect; and 60% reported that they ‘regularly’ or ‘often’ experienced the effect of a medication wearing off before the next dose. It also ...
A man-made antibody successfully prevented organ rejection when tested in primates that had undergone a kidney transplant, Duke Health researchers report. The finding clears the way for the new monoclonal antibody to move forward in human clinical trials. Results of the study appear online Aug. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Imran J. Anwar, (M.D., lead author, surgical research fellow in Duke’s Department of Surgery) said, “Current medications to prevent organ rejection are good overall, but they have a lot of side effects. These therapies suppress the immune system, putting patients at risk of infections and organ damage, and many cause non-immune complications such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The push over the last 30 to 40 years has been to develop new, less toxic drugs. We are hopeful this antibody moves us closer to that goal.” Anwar and colleagues, including co-senior author Allan Kirk, M.D., Ph.D., chair ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Pfizer’s office in Belgium/iStock, Alexandros Michailidis Pfizer and German partner BioNTech on Monday asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider, and ultimately invalidate, Moderna’s patents over core technologies of the COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reported. In an 87-page document, the partner companies argued that the Moderna patents are “unimaginably broad” and seek to claim ownership of knowledge that had existed long before its asserted priority date of 2015. Pfizer and BioNTech contend that using injecting mRNA into cells to produce a protein—and in turn leveraging this process to produce vaccines that prime immune protection—had been demonstrated and documented in the scientific literature as early as the 1990s. Moderna’s patent claims over any mRNA sequence encoding any betacoronavirus spike protein or its subunit, as well as a lipid-based formulation for delivery, is an “attempt to coopt and entire field of mRNA technology,” Pfizer and BioNTech argued ...
By Kate Goodwin Novo Nordisk has again bought a weight-loss focused biotech, as the obesity market heats up. Announced Wednesday, the Danish pharma plans to buy Embark Biotech for $16.3 million up front with close to $500 million on the line in milestone payments—Novo’s second obesity-focused acquisition in three weeks. Novo participated in the seed round for Embark in 2017 when the biotech spun out from Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen. The company said it was founded on the discovery of a “novel target that suppresses appetite increases energy expenditure and enhances insulin sensitivity.” The acquisition announced Wednesday gives Novo full rights to develop and commercialize Embark Biotech’s lead metabolic program, currently in preclinical stages. Included is a three-year R&D collaboration with Embark Laboratories, a new company being formed by the biotech’s team to develop therapies for obesity and related conditions, with ...
It is a bleak view for Outlook Therapeutics’ wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatment plans after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected a biologic licence application (BLA) for the company’s bevacizumab-vikg candidate. Shares in Outlook Therapeutics fell a hefty 80% when the market opened on 30 August. Prior to the FDA’s complete response letter (CRL), a GlobalData consensus estimated Outlook to potentially earn $989m in 2029 if the drug was approved. GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology. Despite ONS-5010 (bevacizumab-vikg) demonstrating positive results in a trial – meeting safety and efficacy endpoints, the agency noted several manufacturing issues and the need for additional confirmatory clinical data. In a conference call on 30 August, Outlook Therapeutics’ CEO Russell Trenary said: “We are disappointed, and we were certainly not expecting to receive a CRL back from the FDA.” He added that the company believes the chemistry, manufacturing, and ...
Merck & Co – known as MSD outside the US and Canada – has announced that its anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) has been approved by the European Commission (EC) as part of a combination treatment for certain gastric cancer patients. The therapy is now approved in combination with trastuzumab, fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma. Patients eligible for the Keytruda regimen will also have tumours that express PD-L1 with a combined positive score of one or more, the company outlined. Gastric cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with nearly 1.1 million new cases diagnosed and more than 768,000 deaths from the disease globally in 2020. Most gastric cancers are adenocarcinomas, which develop from cells in the innermost lining of the stomach. As the disease ...
By Andy Gooding-Call Pictured: Packs of birth control pills/iStock, towfiqu ahamed At the end of July, Lupin Pharmaceuticals recalled two batches of Tydemy, a birth control drug that the company produces in India, when it was found to have reduced effectiveness. It was the company’s eighth product recall in just 18 months. Lupin was also forced to stop production at one of its Indian plants in 2022 after the FDA issued a warning letter last fall. Around the same time, another generics manufacturer, Intas Pharmaceuticals, made headlines over a failed FDA inspection at a manufacturing plant in Gujarat, India, leading the company to cease operations there. At a moment when drugs already are in short supply, these disruptions are reducing availability even more, putting entire supply chains at risk and forcing doctors and patients to make difficult, life-changing treatment decisions. “It’s hard to know” how the issues at Intas and ...
Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine has been approved by the European Commission (EC) to protect both infants and older adults against RSV-caused lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD). The EC’s decision allows Abrysvo to be given as a single dose to adults aged 60 years and older, and those who are 24 to 36 weeks into their pregnancy to protect their babies from birth until they are six months old. RSV is a common contagious virus characterised by several mild, cold-like symptoms. Although most people recover within a week or two, the virus can cause severe illness in young infants and older adults. In the EU, about 245,000 yearly hospital admissions have been associated with RSV in children aged under five years, while the virus is estimated to cause more than 270,000 hospitalisations in older adults each year. The EC’s decision, which follows a recent recommendation from the European Medicines ...
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