As R and D shrinks, UK trials new payment scheme for antibiotics

pharmaphorum | July 09, 2019

With big pharma still abandoning R and D into antibiotics and resistant infections on the rise, the UK has launched a new payment system that it hopes will incentivise the development of new drugs. A new subscription approach will see companies paid upfront for access to new antibiotics based on their value to the NHS, rather than the volume of medicines sold, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. The idea is that this will give companies who develop innovative antimicrobials a greater return on their R&D investment than would occur if those drugs are held in reserve for resistant infections, and so only used sparingly. It also removes the incentive for companies to market antibiotics in order to boost sales at a time when the NHS is trying to reduce their use to counter the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Hancock said the UK cannot act alone, however, and he urged other countries to follow suit. AMR is becoming a major public health concern around the world, resulting in around 700,000 deaths each year at the moment with fatalities expected to increase as the antibiotic armamentarium loses its potency. Companies are now being asked to propose identify medicines that could be considered for inclusion in the pilot, which will use an adapted NICE health technology assessment (HTA) approach to determine payments teased by Hancock at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.  “Imagine a world in which a papercut can lead to infection that can’t be controlled. We must stop that from happening,” said Hancock. “Tackling superbugs needs global leadership and peoples’ lives depend on us finding a new way forward.” For decades, pharma companies have been gradually withdrawing from antimicrobial research because they find it hard to get a return on the estimated £1 billion it costs to develop a new drug, turning their attention to more lucrative therapeutic areas such as cancer and diabetes.

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Cytel and GSK Advance Clinical Trial Design with Solara

Cytel | February 09, 2023

On February 7, 2023, Cytel Inc., a provider of statistical software and advanced analytics in the life sciences industry, announced that GSK, one of the world's top biopharmaceutical firms, signed a three-year strategic agreement to increase GSK’s deployment of the clinical strategy platform Solara (R). This agreement will contribute significantly to the future development of the Solara platform. The platform can help GSK effectively align on trial goals, traverse trial uncertainties, and create pressure-tested clinical trial designs that reduce costs and expedite speed up to the market. GSK began using Solara in early 2022 and has already profited from the platform in a variety of study design projects. Over 300 users have adopted Solara at the top 20 biopharma firms worldwide since its initial debut in 2021. It is also the recipient of the 2022 Fierce Life Sciences Award for Technology Innovation. Solara blends Cytel's proprietary algorithms evolved over three decades with enormous cloud computational capacity to overcome limits in clinical trial planning and design. Clinical development teams use Solara to quickly generate thousands of trial models representing thousands of design variants. These are used to pressure-test dozens of trial uncertainties, including treatment effect and enrollment rate. The platform's high-speed processing capabilities simulate tens of millions of modeled events that might occur during trial execution in minutes. In addition, Solara's visualizations make it simple to review results and quantify scientific and business trade-offs. The user-friendly interface and dynamic visualization of Solara provide a common language and workspace to facilitate a more data-driven and collaborative trial design process across clinical development functions. About Cytel Founded in 1987, Cytel is the leading provider of statistical tools and advanced analytics for the design and execution of clinical trials. It helps life sciences decision-makers to realize the full potential of their products. Its 30 years of global expertise in consulting, data-driven analytics, and industry-leading software helps biotech and pharmaceutical firms transform insight into confident decisions, from navigating uncertainty to establishing value. The company has an unwavering dedication to scientific rigor and operational excellence, which is directed via its offices in the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, and Asia.

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Ionis Pharma's Eplontersen for ATTRv-PN Gets FDA's NDA Acceptance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | March 10, 2023

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West Pharmaceutical Introduces Three New Product Innovations at Pharmapack Europe

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. | February 01, 2023

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