Pharma News

Caladrius Biosciences, Inc., a cell therapy company combining an industry-leading development and manufacturing services provider, PCT, with a select therapeutic development pipeline, announces that its product candidate CLBS03 (autologous expanded polyclonal regulatory T cells, or Tregs) was granted Fast Track designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (TID), making it the first known therapeutic candidate for treatment of T1D to receive the designation. 

ADMA Biologics, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) to the Company’s Biologics License Application (BLA) for RI-002, an Intravenous Immune Globulin (IVIG), for the treatment of patients with Primary Humoral Immunodeficiency Disease (PIDD). 

Zealand Pharma (Zealand), a biotechnology company, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of lixisenatide for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes. Lixisenatide, a once-daily prandial GLP-1 receptor agonist, was invented by Zealand and global development and commercial rights are licensed to Sanofi. 

CANbridge Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing Western drug candidates in China and North Asia, announced that the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has approved the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a Phase I/II clinical study of CAN-008, plus temozolomide (TMZ), during and after radiation therapy, in patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The study design  consists of an open-label, dose-escalation Phase I trial, and a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase II trial. The Phase I trial will evaluate safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy. The Phase II trial will evaluate efficacy and safety. The combined Phase I/II trial will enroll a total of approximately 55 patients.  The Phase I portion of the trial will commence in August 2016. 

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited  declared its financial results for the quarter ended 30th June 2016. Net sales for the quarter ended 30th June 2016 came in at Rs. 685 crores, recording a growth of 8% as compared to the same prior year period. The sales growth was adversely impacted by the Drug Pricing Control Order (DPCO) revisions in the quarter. Consequently, Profit Before Tax (PBT) at Rs. 111 crores and Profit After Tax (PAT) at Rs 72 crores decline by 23% against the same prior year period.

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc., announced that the first patient in the phase 2 ULTRA study was dosed at Stanford University. The ULTRA study will evaluate the effects of ubenimex in patients with secondary lymphedema of the lower limb(s) who are optimized on physical therapies. Physical therapies, such as compression garments and bandaging, reflect the current standard of care for lymphedema. Ubenimex is a well-characterized, oral, small-molecule, inhibitor of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H), which blocks the production of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), an inflammatory mediator implicated in lymphedema.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Almirall signed a licensing agreement on the development and commercialization of tildrakizumab for psoriasis in Europe. Tildrakizumab is an investigational IL-23p19 inhibitor currently being evaluated in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.