Pharma News

Pfizer Inc. announced results published in The Lancet from the largest clinical trial of approved smoking cessation medicines, called EAGLES (Evaluating Adverse Events in a Global Smoking Cessation Study). This smoking cessation trial included 8,144 adult smokers and was designed to compare the neuropsychiatric safety of CHANTIX®/CHAMPIX® (varenicline) and bupropion with placebo and nicotine patch in adult smokers with and without a history of psychiatric disorders. The authors concluded that the trial did not show a significant increase in the incidence of the composite primary safety endpoint of serious neuropsychiatric adverse events with CHANTIX/CHAMPIX or bupropion compared to placebo and nicotine patch. Differences between incidence rates were considered significant if their associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were entirely above or below zero. Approximately half of the trial participants had a history of psychiatric disorders, either past and in remission or present and clinically stable. The psychiatric diagnoses included primarily depressive, bipolar, anxiety and psychotic disorders.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) (Sobi), an international speciality healthcare company, announced that it has exercised its option to sign a licensing agreement with Swedish biotech company Affibody AB for the development of novel treatments for inflammatory diseases where interleukin-1 (IL-1) is involved.

Abbott announced the global launch of AlinIQ, the first in a series of new innovations that Abbott will be bringing to diagnostics customers around the world over the next few years. AlinIQ is a first-of-its-kind professional services and informatics solution that will enable labs to deliver greater overall productivity with their existing resources.

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has licensed Pegylated Interferon Lambda-1a (“Lambda”), a novel, well-characterized, first in class Type III interferon to be studied as an investigational therapy for hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection, from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

eNeura, Inc., a privately held medical technology company, announced that it has obtained an expanded CE Marking in Europe extending the label for its SpringTMS device to include migraine prevention. The label extension adds to the existing SpringTMS CE Marking for acute treatment of migraine and UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommending single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (sTMS) for acute and preventative treatment of migraine.

AbbVie , a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies to treat cancer and severe autoimmune diseases will collaborate to develop and commercialize ARGX-115. ARGX-115 is argenx' preclinical-stage human antibody program targeting the novel immuno-oncology target GARP, a protein believed to contribute to immuno-suppressive effects of T-cell

AbbVie and CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. announced that they have entered into a collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize Probody™ Drug Conjugates against CD71, also known as transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1). CD71 is highly expressed in a number of solid and hematologic cancers and has attractive molecular properties for efficient delivery of cytotoxic payloads to tumor cells. Probody therapeutics are designed to take advantage of unique conditions in the tumor microenvironment to enhance the tumor-targeting features of an antibody and reduce drug activity in healthy tissues.

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, announced an integrated genomics initiative to transform drug discovery and development across its entire research and development pipeline.

GW Pharmaceuticals announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation for cannabidiol (CBD) for the treatment of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC).

In a new study, University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers Krishna Poudel and colleagues report that zinc deficiency may contribute to chronic inflammation among HIV-positive individuals. Theirs is believed to be the first investigation to explore the association between serum zinc levels and inflammation among people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, while taking their anti-retroviral therapy (ART) into account.