Pharma News

Combining radiation treatment with 'suicide gene therapy' - a technique in which prostate cancer cells are genetically modified so they signal a patient's immune system to attack them - provides an effective two-pronged punch against the disease, new research shows.

• Coartem® Dispersible*, the first WHO prequalified pediatric antimalarial treatment, has become the standard of care in over 30 malaria-endemic countries
  
• Since 2009, Novartis has supplied 300 million Coartem® Dispersible treatments without profit, mostly to the public sector, to treat children suffering from malaria
  
• Together with other innovations, Coartem® Dispersible contributed to reduce the malaria death rate by 71% for children under the age of 5 years

Rhizen Pharmaceuticals have entered into an exclusive, worldwide license agreement, with Novartis for the development and commercialization of Rhizen’s, inhaled dual PI3K - delta gamma inhibitor and its closely related compounds for  various indications.

Sun Pharma entered into a tripartite research and option agreement with Israel-based Weizmann Institute of Science and Spain’s Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS) to develop breakthrough products for the treatment of neurological diseases like brain stroke; as well as glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee recommended approval of reslizumab, a humanized anti-interleukin-5 (IL-5) IgG4K monoclonal antibody (mAb), in adult patients aged 18 years and older. Reslizumab is a targeted biologic therapy for the treatment of inadequately controlled asthma in patients with elevated blood eosinophils, despite an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)-based treatment regimen.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared for marketing in the United States the first cooling cap to reduce hair loss in female breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Eli Lilly and Company and Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced another immuno-oncology collaboration that will evaluate abemaciclib (LY2835219), Lilly’s cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4 and 6 inhibitor, and Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in a Phase I study across multiple tumor types. Based on the Phase I trial results, the collaboration has the potential to progress to Phase II trials in patients who have been diagnosed with either metastatic breast cancer or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced that the Mexican authorities have granted marketing authorization to Dengvaxia®, making it the first vaccine to be licensed in the world for the prevention of dengue.

Health Minister J.P. Nadda on Wednesday directed government hospitals to ensure a slew of measures to tackle swine flu (H1N1) including keeping medicines, viral diagnostic kits and N-95 masks.

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