Owens & Minor Inc. plans to acquire Rotech Healthcare Holdings Inc. in a $1.36 billion cash transaction expected to close by year end. The deal shows serious commitment to a strategy outlined in December to build out its home health business.
The U.S. FDA literally wasted no time in posting twin warning letters to two companies in China that manufacture syringes that were the subjects of multiple recalls in the U.S.
Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd., of Incheon, South Korea, gained U.S. FDA approval of Epysqli (eculizumab-aagh) as the second biosimilar product to Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Soliris (eculizumab) to treat two rare diseases. The regulatory clearance July 22 grants use of Epysqli to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome – two rare hematologic- and kidney-related disorders known to affect about 50,000 and 5,000 patients in the U.S., respectively.
Aussie biotech Alterity Therapeutics Ltd. released interim data of an open-label phase II trial for lead candidate ATH-434 for treating multiple system atrophy that showed 43% of participants improved, with 29% showing either stable or improved neurological symptoms.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General disclosed an advisory opinion finding Bluebird Bio Inc.’s fertility support program for a gene therapy treatment could run afoul of federal anti-kickback statutes. That follows a similar opinion against Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and its fertility program associated with gene-editing therapy Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel). Vertex subsequently filed a lawsuit.
Noting that the median list price of new drugs that entered the U.S. market last year hit $300,000, senior officials of the three biggest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the country once again denied responsibility for those prices as they testified before the House Oversight Committee July 23 in the third hearing the committee has held on PBM practices.
After reaching a height in 2021, seed and series A rounds have fallen in recent years, and 2024 is no exception, although amounts raised are tracking slightly ahead of last year. On July 23, the numbers were given a boost when two new companies – namely Dover, Del.-based Brenig Therapeutics Inc. and Boston-based Third Arc Bio Inc. – raised $65 million and $165 million, respectively, in series A financings. A third new company, Abiologics Inc., also received $50 million in initial funding.
Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc., a LG Chem Ltd. subsidiary, said that Fotivda (tivozanib) in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo (nivolumab) failed to increase progression-free survival (PFS) in advanced kidney cancer patients in a phase III Tinivo-2 study. Despite the primary endpoint miss, Aveo noted that Fotivda alone, or as a monotherapy, in the control arm meaningfully extended median PFS, helping “further support the approved use of Fotivda as a safe and effective treatment option in relapsed or refractory advanced [renal cell carcinoma] RCC following two or more prior systemic therapies.”
Paige AI Inc.’s partnership with Microsoft Corp., announced last September, appears to have paid off quickly, with a study published in Nature Medicine demonstrating that their jointly developed image-based artificial intelligence model, Virchow, detects 16 cancer types as well or better than tissue-specific clinical-grade models.
The U.S. FDA cited Criticare Technologies Inc. for significant lapses in the company’s corrective and preventive action procedures, which suggests a need for outside certification of compliance because this problem was also observed in a warning letter from 2017.
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