The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug development has increased substantially over the last few years. And both large pharmaceutical companies and venture capital are starting to take notice.
T-cell checkpoint inhibitors, such as drugs targeting PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4, have been successful at helping the immune system attack certain tumors, but the drugs fail to spur a response in many tumor types. Palleon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is taking a different approach, developing drugs to inhibit glycoimmune checkpoints that allow tumors to evade the innate immune system – dendritic cells, macrophages and NK cells – as well as T cells.
It's been a rough couple of weeks for Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. In the middle of September, Intercept issued a Dear Healthcare Provider letter stressing the importance of proper dosing of its primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) treatment, Ocaliva (obeticholic acid), in patients with moderate or severe hepatic impairment (Child Pugh B or C cirrhosis) who are supposed to take 5 mg of Ocaliva once weekly, with the possibility to gradually increase to a maximum of 10 mg twice weekly. Instead, some doctors were giving the dose for patients with no or mild hepatic impairment (noncirrhotic or Child-Pugh A cirrhosis), which starts at 5 mg once daily – seven times the dose for patients with moderate or severe hepatic impairment.
It's a double whammy for cardiovascular drug developers, according to a new study from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. It's taking longer to get a cardiovascular drug through the clinic and onto market. And more drugs are failing along the way.
It's a double whammy for cardiovascular drug developers, according to a new study from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. It's taking longer to get a cardiovascular drug through the clinic and onto market. And more drugs are failing along the way.
Both Summit Therapeutics plc and Insmed Inc. have taken wiping out bacteria to the next level, releasing separate clinical trial data last week that show their drugs target specific bacteria and reach hard-to-treat places in the lung that bacteria hide, respectively.
There are about 8 million people in the U.S. with gout, characterized by high uric acid levels, which lead to painful crystal deposits in joints. About half of those are seeking treatment, mostly with allopurinol, which is available as a generic, but about half of those are unable to reach the target of 6 mg/dl of uric acid, the level at which uric acid becomes insoluble, forming crystals which cause about three to six flares per year.
Prescriptions for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allergan plc’s Linzess (linaclotide) have been written for 1.5 million unique patients with chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) since the drug was launched at the end of 2012.
Prescriptions for Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allergan plc's Linzess (linaclotide) have been written for 1.5 million unique patients with chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) since the drug was launched at the end of 2012.
