BEIJING – There was encouraging news when vaccine developer Moderna Inc. announced Feb. 24 that it has shipped the first vials of its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 for a phase I trial in the U.S. The vaccine was created just 42 days after the genetic sequence of the COVID-19 virus was released.
Sadly, a major part of the answer to why drugs are so expensive appears to be “because they can be.” But the high cost of drugs has also spurred a number of attempts to find medicines that are innovative but remain affordable. Drug repurposing, or using a drug that has been developed for one ailment to treat a different one, is one such strategy.
With battles over the future of American health care being waged in the courts and at the ballot box, JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, has devoted its latest issue to better understanding what Deputy Editor Gregory Curfman called the "challenging problem" of "relentless increases" in prescription drug prices.
Against the backdrop of the global spread of COVID-19, India announced restrictions Tuesday on the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations of those ingredients.
With new phase III multiple myeloma (MM) data in hand from Newton, Mass.-based Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.’s Xpovio (selinexor), Wall Street began speculating about what the results might mean in the marketplace.
In a flurry of catch-up following the coronavirus outbreak in China, a number of biopharma companies have announced development within the last few weeks to address the ever-spreading infection known as COVID-19.
Paris-based Sanofi SA won FDA clearance of the intravenously given CD38-directed cytolytic antibody Sarclisa (isatuximab-irfc) in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst, Celgene Corp.) and dexamethasone (dex) for adults with multiple myeloma (MM) who have received at least two prior therapies, including lenalidomide (Revlimid, Celgene Corp.) and a proteasome inhibitor.
COVID-19 is bringing more pressure to bear on Congress to pass S. 2723, the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages (MEDS) Act, which has been sitting in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee since Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced it in October 2019 – a few months before the novel coronavirus emerged.
With the FDA’s blessing, Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd.’s Nurtec ODT (rimegepant) enters a massive market for treating migraine in adults. In the U.S. alone, more than 25 million people have been diagnosed and seek treatment.
Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.’s chief scientific officer, Jane Gross, told BioWorld that the sale of the firm’s marketed recombinant hemophilia B therapeutic, Ixinity, to Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. allowed for a “cleaner message” to Wall Street. “It was a little difficult to explain having a commercial asset and an R&D pipeline,” she said.
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