DUBLIN – Shares in PTC Therapeutics Inc. dropped as much as 13% during premarket trading Feb. 6 on eagerly awaited 12-month data for its oral spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) drug risdiplam, which is licensed to Genentech. Although patients with type 2 or type 3 SMA demonstrated statistically significant improvements in motor function, the level of that improvement evidently disappointed some investors.
Years after a setback to its clinical program, Medtronic plc‘s Symplicity brand renal denervation (RDN) system appears to be firing on all pistons. The Dublin-based company said this week that it will begin enrolling patients in a pilot study to assess the safety and efficacy of its newer-generation Symplicity Spyral using a targeted procedural approach with fewer radiofrequency (RF) ablations.
BEIJING – China will kickstart a phase III trial Feb. 3 to determine whether patients with 2019-nCoV can be treated with Gilead Sciences Inc.’s NUC inhibitor, remdesivir, which was originally developed for Ebola, four days after a U.S. patient was said to have recovered by using the drug candidate.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has stopped a late-stage HIV vaccine study it sponsored after an interim review by the trial's independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) found the regimen failed to prevent HIV.
The U.S. FDA has given its nod for a new trial of Abbott Laboratories’ Amplatzer Amulet left atrial appendage (LAA) occluder for those with atrial fibrillation (AF) who are at risk of stroke. Known as the CATALYST trial, it is the first study comparing the effectiveness of a LAA closure device to non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) drugs, a newer class of blood thinners, the Abbott Park, Ill.-based company said.
Shares of Bridgewater, N.J.-based Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ:INSM) closed at $28.88, up $8.34, or 40.6%, on positive top-line results from the global, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled phase II study called Willow, testing INS-1007 once daily in adults with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFBE).
BEIJING – China will kickstart a phase III trial Feb. 3 to determine whether patients with 2019-nCoV can be treated with Gilead Sciences Inc.’s NUC inhibitor, remdesivir, which was originally developed for Ebola, four days after a U.S. patient was said to have recovered by using the drug candidate.
Eli Lilly and Co. and Incyte Corp. are working on atopic dermatitis (AD) from several angles and finding success. The most recent example is the positive top-line results from their collaborative phase III trial of baricitinib in treating adults with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis that show the oral selective JAK inhibitor met the study’s primary and secondary endpoints.
Bayer AG and Merck & Co. Inc. took Wall Street by surprise in November with their phase III success testing vericiguat in heart failure (HF), such that the guanylate cyclase stimulator’s odds not only have improved significantly but also in a different way than imagined before.
GI Dynamics Inc.’s U.S. IDE trial of Endobarrier, which is designed for patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and obesity, is now underway with the first patient enrollment at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, Mich. The FDA approved the pivotal STEP-1 clinical trial in August 2019 to evaluate the Endobarrier as a barrier between the small intestine and food to reduce calorie intake.