Novartis AG’s monoclonal antibody, ianalumab (VAY-736), when added to standard-of-care eltrombopag, extended disease control of primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) by 45%, according to data presented Dec. 9 during a late-breaker abstract session at the 67th American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
As the systematic dismantling of the U.S. vaccine schedule escalates, the demands to hold Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy accountable are growing. Claiming that Kennedy has turned his back on science and is endangering public health, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., formally introduced articles of impeachment against him Dec. 10 for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Under the Constitution, federal officials can only be impeached for treason, bribery and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Mirum Pharmaceuticals Inc. is buying privately held Bluejay Therapeutics Inc., an $820 million purchase that will bring it Bluejay’s lead asset, brelovitug, for treating chronic hepatitis D virus.
Fourteen therapies to treat moderate to severe psoriasis are expected to enter the Chinese market in the next two years, according to Clarivate and BioWorld reports. Eleven of them are being developed by domestic biopharmaceutical firms.
Targeted therapies and immunotherapies continue to show better results than chemotherapy in investigator-initiated and company-sponsored cancer trials, and newer options demonstrate improvements over older ones, supporting potential shifts in how patients are treated.
Wall Street was sorting through two batches of news from Jasper Therapeutics Inc., which made public positive data from the phase Ib study called Etesian with KIT-targeting briquilimab in adults with allergic asthma, while making known the outcome of a probe into the phase Ib/II Beacon study with the same drug in chronic spontaneous urticaria.
China’s National Medical Products Administration gave the nod to Innovent Biologics Inc.’s picankibart (IBI-112), branded as Pecondle, for treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who are candidates for systemic therapy.
The priority BLA from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and its U.S. subsidiary, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization Inc., for sibeprenlimab to treat immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) has received accelerated approved by the U.S. FDA.
Bluejay Therapeutics Inc.’s lead compound, the fully human monoclonal antibody brelovitug (BJT-778), produced positive virologic response data in the company’s phase II study of chronic hepatitis D virus, a condition with no approved treatment in the U.S.
A primary endpoint failure but with outstanding estimated glomerular filtration rates and impressive safety data in the phase II trial called Bestow are adding up to plans for later-stage work with Eledon Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s tegoprubart (tego) for preventing rejection in de novo kidney transplant.