This year the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is holding its meeting for the 50th time. At a press conference preceding the release of abstracts yesterday, ASCO president Clifford Hudis took a moment to celebrate some of the more impressive victories that clinical oncology has collectively achieved over the past few decades. Read More
The already-bright hope for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMS) PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was bolstered by a deal to test the compound with Celldex Therapeutics Inc.'s CD27-targeting varlilumab, on a day that saw another oncology deal in the same space between Incyte Corp. and Medimmune, part of London-based Astrazeneca plc. Read More
Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares (NASDAQ:ISIS) extended a slow recovery Wednesday as investors took note of phase II data showing that the company's experimental antisense drug, ISIS-GCGRRx, helped patients with type 2 diabetes improve control of the disease, even when they're unable to do so with metformin. Read More
SHANGHAI – At the 6th DIA Annual Meeting here this week, many of the 1,500 attendees are justifiably concerned about how to get medicines into the hands of those who need it most in China faster and more efficiently, where drugs hit the market several years after the U.S. or EU. Read More
LONDON – "Welcome back for round two," said Andrew Miller MP, chair of the science and technology committee, opening the second parliamentary hearing in as many days on Pfizer Inc.'s proposed takeover of Astrazeneca plc. Read More
HONG KONG – Merck & Co. Inc. has signed a deal to sell nine of its ophthalmic products to Japan-based Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. The decision to spin off the products to its long-time partner is Merck's latest move out of the ophthalmic market. Read More
The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) finalized an interim rule implementing the 14-month and three-year patent term adjustment provisions of the America Invents Act Technical Corrections Act. Read More
Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., of Philadelphia, said it entered a formal research agreement to test Alferon N injection, a multispecies, natural alpha interferon, against wild-type and Tamiflu (oseltamivir, Roche AG)-resistant H7N9 influenza virus under the Data Exchange Agreement Annex for Medical Preparedness and Bio-Defense Agreement between the Swiss Surgeon General and the U.S. Department of Defense. Read More
Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc., of Morristown, N.J., said it signed an agreement with Glaxosmithkline plc, of London, to acquire the U.S. rights to Treximet (sumatriptan/naproxen sodium) for the acute treatment of migraine attacks with or without aura in adults. Read More
Amgen, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., said data from the phase III LAPLACE-2 (LDL-C Assessment with PCSK9 MonoclonaL Antibody Inhibition Combined with Statin ThErapy-2) study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read More
Astellas Pharma US Inc., of Northbrook, Ill., part of Astellas Pharma Inc., reported that efficacy and safety data of the isavuconazole invasive aspergillosis study (SECURE) were presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain. Read More
