Pharma News

Sex-specific cardiovascular drug dosages are needed to reduce adverse reactions in women, according to a position paper from the European Society of Cardiology published in the June issue of European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy.

Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancerous and transform into tumors. Some, like skin cancer, are relatively accessible to treatment via surgery or radiation, which minimizes damage to healthy cells; others, like pancreatic cancer, are deep in the body and can only be reached by flooding the bloodstream with cell-killing chemotherapies that, ideally, shrink tumors by accumulating in their ill-formed blood and lymph vessels in higher amounts than in vessels of healthy tissues. To improve the low efficacy and toxic side effects of chemotherapies that rely on this passive accumulation, a team of researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Boston Children's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School has developed a new drug delivery platform that uses safe, low-energy ultrasound waves to trigger the dispersal of chemotherapy-containing sustained-release nanoparticles precisely at tumor sites, resulting in a two-fold increase in targeting efficacy and a dramatic reduction in both tumor size and drug-related toxicity in mouse models of breast cancer.

Prices for most essential drugs will increase by as much as 2.29 percent when the goods and services tax regime starts next month. The government has set a rate of 12 percent on most essential drugs, as against the current tax incidence of around 9 per cent.

The Center has approved proposals for the creation of 100 Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) hospitals nationwide, AYUSH Minister of State Shripad Yesso Naik said.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.announced that it has launched Bivalirudin for
Injection, 250 mg/vial, a therapeutic equivalent generic version of Angiomax® (Bivalirudin) for Injection, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Nesher Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA has received final approval from the USFDA to market Nystatin Topical Powder USP, 100,000 units per gram.

Intraocular lenses used in cataract surgeries are being sold at a rate that is 10 times higher than the market price, Food and Drug Administration officials said in a report presented to the department of pharmaceuticals.

Fibrocell Science, Inc. a gene therapy company focused on transformational autologous cell-based therapies for skin and connective tissue diseases, announced that the remaining two patients in the NC1+ cohort have been dosed in the Phase 1 portion of the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of FCX-007 for the treatment of Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (RDEB), a devastating genetic skin disease with a high mortality rate. The cohort consists of three patients.

Cell Design Labs, Inc. announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 9,670,281, entitled “Binding-triggered transcriptional switches and the methods of use thereof.” This patent, issued to UC San Francisco (UCSF) and exclusively licensed to Cell Design Labs, broadly covers composition of matter for proprietary synNotch™ constructs, cells genetically modified with synNotch receptors and methods for treating diseases.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on relaxed guidelines for the production of pediatric HIV drugs, whose supply was affected by regulatory issues. The regulator approved the child-friendly and thermally stable pellet formulation of Lopinavir / Ritonavir without feasibility studies, but said it would control post-marketing surveillance.