As with most common diseases of the developed world, aging is the major risk factor for developing cancer. Most of the half-dozen hallmarks of precancer that were published last week by investigators from Vanderbilt University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are also hallmarks of aging.
Unfortunately, scientists reported at the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) 2024 annual meeting this week that accelerated aging is increasing, and may be driving an increase in early-onset cancers.
Insider trading goes beyond the bounds of the companies at the center of nonpublic information, the U.S. SEC reminded biopharma industry insiders Aug. 17 when it charged Matthew Panuwat, former head of business development at Medivation Inc., with insider trading ahead of the California company’s Aug. 22, 2016, announcement that it was being acquired by Pfizer Inc. in a $14 billion deal.
China’s Visen Pharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. is targeting an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange with three rare endocrine disease therapies licensed-in from Denmark’s Ascendis Pharma A/S, including U.S. FDA-approved Skytrofa (lonapegsomatropin).
Mixed opinions from the U.S. FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee last month didn’t stop the agency from green-lighting an expanded label for Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) to include adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM) after two or more prior lines of therapy including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.