Pharmafile.com’s top 10 news stories of the week
pharmafile | May 14, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications |
Among our ten most-read stories this week: India recoded its record number of COVID-19 deaths, with 4,205 fatalities confirmed in a single day, Deloitte has acquired Iperion Life Sciences Consultancy, and AstraZeneca and Amgen’s asthma drug has shown positive results in its Phase III trial.
1. India report record number of COVID deaths as bodies drift down Ganges – Published 12/05/21
India yesterday reported the country’s highest COVID-19 death total for a single day, with 4,205 fatalities officially confirmed.
2. Deloitte acquires Iperion Life Sciences Consultancy– Published 07/05/21
Deloitte have announced the acquisition of Iperion Life Sciences Consultancy, a globally-operating firm working to support life sciences companies and regulatory bodies in their digital transformation.
3. AstraZeneca and Amgen asthma drug shows positive results in Phase III trial– Published 13/05/21
AstraZeneca and Amgen’s new tezepelumab drug for the treatment of severe asthma has shown superiority across all primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase III trial.
4. NICE rejects Merck Serono’s Bavencio for urothelial cancer – Published 10/05/21
The use of avelumab for maintenance treatment of locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer after platinum-based chemotherapy is not recommended by NICE following an announcement on May 6.
5. Bayer’s cardiovascular drug shows impressive Phase III results – Published 11/05/21
Bayer’s finerenone drug has been shown to significantly reduce cardiovascular death or other cardiovascular events in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to results from a Phase III trial.
6. Abbvie psoriatic arthritis drug approved for use in Scotland – Published 11/05/21
Abbvie’s RINVOQ (upadacitinib) drug, for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in adults, has been approved for use in NHS Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.
7. AstraZeneca secures MHRA licensing and NHS early access for lung cancer drug – Published 07/05/21
AstraZeneca have announced that the MHRA has granted a license extension for Tagrisso (osimertinib) in the UK, for use as monotherapy for the adjuvant treatment after complete tumour resection in adult patients with stage IB-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), whose tumours have epidermal growth factor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations.
8. NICE rejects Pfizer’s Vyndaqel for treating rare heart condition – Published 12/05/21
NICE has published final guidance today which rejects tafamidis, also known as Vyndaqel, for treating rare heart condition transthyretin amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM).
9. EMA begin review of GSK & Vir COVID-19 treatment – Published 10/05/21
The EMA has begun a rolling review of GSK and Vir’s sotrovimab treatment for COVID-19, which will continue until there is enough evidence available for a marketing authorisation application for the drug.
10. Sanofi’s Libtayo shows positive Phase III results in advanced cervical cancer– Published 13/05/21
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi have announced today positive Phase III trial results investigating the PD-1 inhibitor Libtayo (cemiplimab) in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer who had previously progressed on chemotherapy.
