Pharma News

UK’s National Health Services has approved world’s most expensive drug which is used to treat a rare genetic disorder. Manufactured by Novartis Gene Therapies, Zolgensma, has a reported list price of Rs 18 crore (£1.79 million) per dose, the NHS England said. The medicine is used to treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare and often fatal genetic disease that causes paralysis, muscle weakness and progressive loss of movement. Zolgensma will be used on babies and young children suffering the genetic disorder.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited announced the exercise of its option to acquire Maverick Therapeutics, Inc. a private biopharmaceutical company pioneering conditionally active bispecific T-cell targeted immunotherapies.

In a new health scare, a team of researchers from India, the UK and Russia, has found that Diphtheria, which is a relatively easily-preventable infection, has started to become resistant to several classes of antibiotics, and in future, it may even become immune to vaccination. In a report, the team has also suggested that there was a possibility of the disease once more becoming a major threat across the globe because of the impact of COVID-19 on vaccination schedules in different parts of the world, coupled with a rise in the number of infections.

New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that three new, fast-spreading variants of the virus that cause COVID-19 can evade antibodies that work against the original form of the virus that sparked the pandemic. With few exceptions, whether such antibodies were produced in response to vaccination or natural infection, or were purified antibodies intended for use as drugs, the researchers found more antibody is needed to neutralize the new variants.

New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are desperately needed, but numerous clinical trials of investigational drugs have failed to generate promising options. Now a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has developed an artificial intelligence based method to screen currently available medications as possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The method could represent a rapid and inexpensive way to repurpose existing therapies into new treatments for this progressive, debilitating neurodegenerative condition.

In 1993, scientists discovered that a single mutated gene, HTT, caused Huntington's disease, raising high hopes for a quick cure. Yet today, there's still no approved treatment.

Galderma announced a European re-launch of Sculptra® (injectable poly-L-lactic acid) - a collagen stimulator - with an updated administration protocol. This means that the product is ready for use more quickly following reconstitution, with increased levels of comfort for patients. Sculptra® can now be used immediately following a two-minute reconstitution and with the optional addition of lidocaine for patient comfort. Previously, healthcare professionals had to wait two hours following reconstitution to administer the product.

The US District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia has decided in favour of AstraZeneca in litigation against Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Mylan) and Kindeva Drug Delivery L.P. (Kindeva), determining that asserted claims in three of AstraZeneca’s patents protecting Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol) in the US are not invalid.

Vir Biotechnology, Inc and GlaxoSmithKline plc provided an update on the VIR-7831 (GSK4182136) arm of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) Program Phase 3 clinical trial. The companies were informed that while VIR-7831 met initial pre-specified criteria to continue to the next phase of the ACTIV-3 trial and there were no reported safety signals, sensitivity analyses of the available data raised concerns about the magnitude of potential benefit.

Pharmaron Beijing Co., Limited announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Allergan Biologics Limited in Liverpool, UK, for US$118.7 million in cash from AbbVie. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.