The FDA wants to know what, exactly, is in a drug name. Specifically, can a brand moniker determine how consumers and healthcare providers perceive the drug? So, the agency has launched a study to determine whether names sway opinions about a drug's effectiveness. Drugmakers submit their proposed names to the FDA for approval, but the companies often hire branding agencies to help create a name. The agency’s job is to make up brand names that draw relevant connections but follow FDA gu...
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PDC line Pharma, a clinical stage biotech company developing a new class of potent and scalable active immunotherapies for cancers, announces today the completion of its Series B round of financing. The company has raised a total of €20 million ($22.2M). Two and a half years after its last round of fundraising in July 2017, PDC*line Pharma has attracted new investors, securing a further capital increase of €13.9M ($15.5M). In addition, the company will receive €6.1M ($6.8M) in loa...
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Ocuphire Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies to treat patients with a variety of ophthalmic disorders, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Apexian Pharmaceuticals, Inc., granting Ocuphire an exclusive worldwide sublicense to Apexian’s Ref-1 Inhibitor program, including its lead drug candidate APX3330, for all ophthalmic and diabetic indications. APX3330 is a first-in-class, orally-adminis...
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Changes in the epigenetics - the modifiable chemical tags that can change the genome and gene expression - of breast cancer cells can make them resistant to drugs that are targeting them. This seems to happen to ER+ breast cancer cells, which make up around two of every three cases of breast cancer. This type of cancer can become resistant to the hormonal therapy used to treat it. Breast cancer relapse could be reduced, researchers suggested, if these epigenetic changes can be reversed. Re...
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Proofpoint is urging all organizations to take steps to shore up any vulnerabilities, after detecting a massive Emotet campaign targeting the pharmaceutical industry. The hacking group behind Emotet is known as TA542. Emotet is a modular botnet able to download and install a wide range of malware. It's also known to steal data and send malicious emails from victims. Proofpoint notes that it can easily spread across networks, leveraging infected devices to launch additional attacks. The notor...
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In a year when healthcare costs continued to increase, UnitedHealth Group reported better-than-expected results at the end of 2019. The company reported earnings of $19.68 billion in 2019, up 13 percent year-over-year. UnitedHealth saw improving margins in most of its business segments, with its Optum segment reporting double-digit growth across the board. The company also managed to grow its already large presence in the Medicare Advantage market, despite several new competitors. Overall, Unite...
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A new Veterinary Medicines Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/6) has been introduced to modernise the existing rules on the authorisation and use of veterinary medicines in the European Union (EU). This becomes applicable on 28 January 2022. The regulation contains new measures for increasing the availability and safety of veterinary medicines and enhances EU action against antimicrobial resistance. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is working closely with the European Commission and other EU pa...
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Today announced it has signed a long-term agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to develop and manufacture medications with Civica as the owner of the regulatory pathway. By working with Thermo Fisher to develop Civica-owned Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs), Civica will secure the manufacture of certain essential medications, further mitigating the risk of drug shortages in the future. This partnership has an initial seven-year term and represents a key component of Civica’s man...
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Roche missed out on acquiring next-generation sequencing (NGS) specialist Illumina via a hostile takeover a few years back, but has compensated for that with a 15-year alliance focusing on cancer genomics. The new deal comes after Illumina called off a $1.2 billion merger agreement with another NGS player – Pacific Biosciences or PacBio – after concluding it would be unlikely to make it past antitrust regulators in the US and UK. Illumina is thought to have around 80% of the DNA sequ...
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The skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs has become a bipartisan issue among voters, and Utahns overwhelmingly back a plan to help diabetics overcome the cost of life-saving insulin. A new poll from UtahPolicy.com Y-2 Analytics finds 4 out of 5 registered voters would support legislation to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin. The idea mirrors a bill passed in Colorado in 2019 to limit a patient's out-of-pocket costs for insulin, a hormone critical to diabetics for controlling their blood...
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