Pharmafocus

Pharmafocus | February 14, 2017

Plastic electronics could be the next big thing for pharma production and treatment , according to a new report on the use of the tool in healthcare devices from IP licensable technology database InnovationDB. Plastic electronics allow for the creation and printing of circuitry onto virtually any surface, be it rigid or flexible, using organic semiconducting materials. This opens up the development and application of electronic devices in areas which were not previously possible....

Pharmafocus | February 14, 2017

Marathon Pharmaceuticals’ approval, last week, by the FDA for its treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy would usually have been cause for celebration within the pharmaceutical company and more than likely it was – but only for the weekend. Starting on Monday morning, the price of the treatment started hitting the headlines and suddenly Marathon was experiencing a hangover to the party rather than sooner than they would have hoped....

Pharmafocus | February 14, 2017

AstraZeneca’s Daxas (roflumilast) has been knocked back in draft guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), rejected by the regulator as a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The treatment was rejected on the basis of cost-effectiveness; AstraZeneca calculated the drug’s price per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained at £18,774, but NICE placed the figure at £71,365 by utilising different data, leaving the committee no choice but to b...

Pharmafocus | February 15, 2017

A new dual action drug developed as part of a collaboration between biopharmaceutical oncology firm Almac Discovery and The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) could be used to treat cancer patients in whom all other treatment avenues have failed. In development for 10 years, ALM201 entered the clinical trial stage in 2015 and the research team at RCSI have now established the maximum tolerated dose, as lead researcher Proffesor Tracy Robson explained: “We started off with a low dose ...