Industry News

(30th September, 2014; Business Wire India); Apollo Hospitals and Sanofi today announced their decision to collaborate on the expansion of Apollo Sugar Clinics, which provide integrated diabetes care programs in India. Through this collaboration, Apollo and Sanofi plan to leverage their respective expertise in diabetes to provide patients with access to comprehensive educational resources, treatment and care programs that can help patients better manage their diabetes. The first wave of this collaboration will focus on the establishment of 50 Apollo Sugar Clinics.

(20th September, 2014; Business Wire India); Boehringer Ingelheim obtains exclusive global rights for development and commercialisation of CureVac’s investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine CV9202CV9202 is based on CureVac’s mRNA technology (RNActive®) Clinical investigation of CV9202 will be initiated in at least two different lung cancer treatment settings, in combination with Boehringer Ingelheim’s afatinib* and in the chemo-radiation setting. The in-licensing of this investigational cancer compound adds a highly innovative new approach to Boehringer Ingelheim’s lung cancer development portfolio.

(17th September, 2014); The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Movantik (naloxegol), an oral treatment for opioid-induced constipation in adults with chronic non-cancer pain.

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(3rd September, 2014); The new agent, an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) known as LCZ696, has already been granted Fast Track status by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – a designation which can expedite the review of new medicines intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. And surprisingly, LCZ696 was superior to ACE-inhibitor, enalapril, on key endpoints in the largest heart failure study ever done.

(2nd September, 2014); Wockhardt Ltd’s New Drug Discovery program in Anti - Infective research received a major boost after two of its drugs, WCK 771 and WCK 2349, received the coveted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) status from the US FDA. This is the first instance of an Indian Pharmaceutical company receiving a QIDP status.

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(22nd August, 2014; Business Wire India); Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) announced that results of a study evaluating the combination of REVLIMID® (lenalidomide) with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, vincristine sulfate and prednisone (R-CHOP) in untreated diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) were published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

(6th August, 2014); Sanofi in India announced today that it has entered into a marketing and distribution agreement with Emcure Pharmaceuticals (Emcure) for its oncology portfolio in India. As per the agreement, while Sanofi will continue to own its oncology range - comprising 4 brands namely Taxotere®, Jevtana®, Fludara® and Fasturtec®, Emcure will market and distribute these brands through its Specialty Unit.

(6th August, 2014); Roche announced on last Monday that it has agreed to acquire Santaris Pharma, a privately held biopharmaceutical company based near Copenhagen, Denmark. Santaris Pharma has pioneered its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) platform that has contributed to an emerging era of RNA-targeting therapeutics. This new class of medicines has the potential to address difficult to treat diseases in a range of therapeutic areas.

(31st July, 2014); Indian Patent Act does not allow patent to be granted to inventions involving new forms of a known substance unless it differs significantly in properties with regard to efficacy which is major concern for US pharma companies. This indigenous rules agitated US multinational companies for doing fruitful business in India.

(31st July, 2014); U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved EYLEA® (aflibercept) Injection for the treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). The recommended dosage of EYLEA in patients with DME is 2 milligrams (mg) every two months (8 weeks) after five initial monthly injections. Although EYLEA may be dosed as frequently as 2 mg every 4 weeks, additional efficacy was not demonstrated when EYLEA was dosed every 4 weeks compared to every 8 weeks.