Pharma News

Cedars-Sinai Investigators Find Popular Weight Loss Drugs Are Associated With Increased Risk of Aspiration Pneumonia Following Endoscopy.

New research from Cedars-Sinai suggests people who are scheduled for certain medical procedures should stop taking popular weight loss drugs in the days or weeks prior to avoid complications.

Merck known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved sotatercept-csrk (U.S. Brand Name: WINREVAIR, for injection, 45mg, 60mg) for the treatment of adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH, World Health Organization [WHO] Group 1) to increase exercise capacity, improve WHO functional class (FC), and reduce the risk of clinical worsening events. WINREVAIR was previously granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA.

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc a biopharmaceutical company with the purpose to better the lives of people impacted by kidney disease, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Vafseo® (vadadustat) Tablets for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults who have been receiving dialysis for at least three months.

Novartis announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion and recommended granting a marketing authorization for Fabhalta® (iptacopan) for the treatment of adults with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) who have hemolytic anemia.

Takeda announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for ICLUSIG® (ponatinib) for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL) in combination with chemotherapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative complete remission (CR) at the end of induction.

Bristol Myers Squibb announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted approval to Abecma® (idecabtagene vicleucel; ide-cel) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies, including an immunomodulatory agent (IMiD), a proteasome inhibitor (PI), and an anti-CD38 antibody and have demonstrated disease progression on the last therapy.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can damage the heart even without directly infecting the heart tissue, a National Institutes of Health-supported study has found. The research, published in the journal Circulation, specifically looked at damage to the hearts of people with SARS-CoV2-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a serious lung condition that can be fatal. But researchers said the findings could have relevance to organs beyond the heart and also to viruses other than SARS-CoV-2.

AstraZeneca has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation radioconjugates (RCs). The acquisition marks a major step forward in AstraZeneca delivering on its ambition to transform cancer treatment and outcomes for patients by replacing traditional regimens like chemotherapy and radiotherapy with more targeted treatments.

The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria is a global threat to human health, and the development of new antibiotics from scratch is an extremely expensive and time-consuming process. To address this urgent issue, researchers from Kent’s School of Biosciences have combined computational and microbiology laboratory approaches to identify existing drugs that can be repurposed to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.