Ebola vaccine from Merck takes step toward US approval

BioPharma Dive | September 17, 2019

While Merck's Ebola vaccine isn't yet approved in the U.S. or Europe, the drugmaker has been providing extensive supplies of investigational doses at the request of the WHO. According to the company, Merck has shipped more than 245,000 1 milliliter doses of V920 to the international health agency, with another 190,000 available.  V920 is part of the international community's response to the outbreak of Ebola in the northwest corner of the DRC. The number of reported cases per week has come down from a peak several months ago, but remains high. "While the intensity of the outbreak shows signs of easing in some areas and total case numbers are decreasing, it is too soon to tell if this trend will continue," the WHO noted in its Sept. 10 situation report. As the outbreak persists, Merck has begun preparation to increase supply of investigational V920 in consultation with the WHO, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Merck aims to produce 650,000 doses in phases over the next six to 18 months.

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Learn about the industry’s first pharmaceutical supply chain solution that is reducing the cost of care and ensuring access to critical medications for hospitals and health systems.

Spotlight

Learn about the industry’s first pharmaceutical supply chain solution that is reducing the cost of care and ensuring access to critical medications for hospitals and health systems.

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Pharmacy Market

Signant Health Extends the Power of Clinical Supply Management Software to the Small and Mid-Size Market Through Updated

PRNewswire | July 11, 2023

Signant Health, the leader in evidence generation for modern clinical trials, announced expanded flexibility and capabilities for its leading Signant SmartSignals Supplies software, empowering small and mid-size customers to experience the advantages of technology-driven clinical supply management. Relaunched as Signant SmartSignals Supplies GxP Inventory, the solution provides sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) with efficient, comprehensive management and oversight of the end-to-end supply chain. Unlike spreadsheet-based supply chain management, the GxP Inventory solution offers centralized, full visibility of clinical trial material creation, release, and distribution activities within a single system. Available as either an Essential or Enterprise option, clinical research sponsors can select the optimal solution for their needs, which is often dictated by size or trial volume. The Essential option enables sponsors to deploy quickly using our pre-configured system for inventory manufacturing, management, and QA/QP release. The Enterprise option provides more advanced features for larger customers with internal supply chain capabilities to meet more individualized requirements, sponsor-specific terminology/labels, and additional workflow/process options. Both options are SaaS-based for cost-effective implementation, reduction of internal technology investments, and ease of ongoing maintenance. "Signant is extremely proud of its heritage as a leading provider of GxP inventory management solutions to many top-20 sponsor organizations. Our Essential option now extends the same benefits to smaller sponsors and CROs who wish to have the same level of inventory control, regulatory compliance, and visibility in a more compact, per-protocol commercial offering," said Sanjiv Waghmare, Signant's chief product officer. Technology-based solutions make clinical trials safer for patients through better visibility and control of supplies, particularly with respect to investigational products. From sourcing drug substance ingredients to randomized patient kits, these solutions ensure that all supply chain data is in one place, and not distributed across spreadsheets, emails, and external inventory management systems. With the launch of the Essential option, we are making the technology-based solution for clinical supply management accessible to sponsors of all sizes. About Signant Health Signant Health is the evidence generation company. We are focused on leveraging software, deep therapeutic and scientific knowledge, and operational expertise to consistently capture, aggregate, and reveal quality evidence for clinical studies across traditional, virtual, and hybrid trial models. For more than 20 years, over 600 sponsors and CROs of all sizes – including all Top 20 pharma – have trusted Signant solutions for remote and site-based eCOA, eConsent, RTSM, supply chain management, and data quality analytics.

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Pharma Tech

Multistakeholder Collaborations are Vital to Advancing Technologies in Parkinson's

PRNewswire | July 10, 2023

Critical Path Institute (C-Path) and the Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) at University of Rochester today announced the release of two seminal publications about digital health technologies for Parkinson's. These technologies, such as smartphones and wearable sensors, offer an opportunity for objective, frequent and remote assessment of people with Parkinson's. With 10 million people living with Parkinson's worldwide, collaboration and data sharing are crucial for driving innovation in drug development for the fastest-growing degenerative neurological condition. Research leaders at CHeT have joined forces with organizations and regulators through C-Path's Critical Path for Parkinson's (CPP) Consortium, a precompetitive public-private partnership. CPP aims to accelerate the regulatory endorsement of digital tools in Parkinson's clinical trials through its Digital Drug Development Tools (3DT) initiative. In June 2023, the Journal of Parkinson's Disease published two open access manuscripts, representing companion papers from this partnership that detail steps in conducting interviews of people with Parkinson's who participated in a clinical research study using smartphones. The manuscripts report on relevant symptoms in early Parkinson's and assess the relevance of digital measures from a smartphone application and smartwatch from the patient perspective. The study was led by Jamie Adams, M.D., Associate Professor of Neurology and Associate Director of CheT at the University of Rochester and Jennifer Mammen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island, with support from CPP. "This project pioneers a new path to efficiently advance tools aligned with the patient voice by engaging with regulatory agencies early and often," said Diane Stephenson, Ph.D., CPP Executive Director. "C-Path remains committed to learning what matters most to people living with Parkinson's." "These manuscripts describe a novel methodology that will help inform the use of digital health technologies in clinical trials for Parkinson's disease and support more objective and patient-centered measures. The goal is to enable efficient, data-driven, and patient-centric utilization of digital health technologies to speed therapeutic development," said Adams. "Sharing the results with the study participants and witnessing how this information helped them in new ways has been most rewarding." John Crawford, a CPP advisor, Parkinson's advocate, and manuscript coauthor states, "Digital health technologies have the potential to significantly impact Parkinson's management and have already revolutionized clinical trial conduct. Their advancement expedites trials, enhances intelligence, reduces costs, and ultimately accelerates the delivery of new therapies and technologies to patients." The new publications coincide with CPP's participation in the World Parkinson's Congress taking place in Barcelona, Spain July 4-7, 2023. CPP will present two posters, Recommendations for Parkinson's Clinical Trials using Digital Health Technologies and Worldwide Collaborative Framework for Optimizing New Parkinson's Treatment Trials with Patient Centric Outcome Measures, at the conference coauthored by people living with Parkinson's highlighting the importance of worldwide collaborations. About Critical Path Institute Critical Path Institute (C-Path) is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 2005 as a public and private partnership. C-Path's mission is to catalyze the development of new approaches that advance medical innovation and regulatory science, accelerating the path to a healthier world. An international leader in forming collaborations, C-Path has established numerous global consortia that currently include more than 1,600 scientists from government and regulatory agencies, academia, patient organizations, disease foundations, and hundreds of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. C-Path U.S. is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona and C-Path Europe is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands with additional staff in multiple other locations. C-Path FDA Acknowledgement The Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) is an academic research organization within the University of Rochester Medical Center. We are comprised of six units, with expertise in clinical trials coordination, clinical materials services, patient and caregiver-reported outcome measures, tech research and innovation, data modeling and predictive analysis, and health policy. Our skilled team of consultants are readily available to provide guidance to academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, technology firms, not-for-profit foundations, advocacy groups, and the federal government.

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Research

Cipher Partner, Moberg Pharma Announces Approval for MOB-015 in the European Union

Newswire | July 05, 2023

Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Cipher" or "the Company") today announced that the Company's partner, Moberg Pharma AB, ("Moberg Pharma") has obtained European Union approval for MOB-015 (nail fungus treatment) as a result of demonstrating superior levels of mycological cure (76% vs. 42% for comparators) and a significantly better complete cure rate. MOB-015 has been recommended for national approval in 13 European countries, which will be commercialized through partners such as Bayer and Allderma, and is expected to be launched in Nordic countries such as Sweden during 2023. Cipher holds the exclusive Canadian rights to MOB-015, a new topical treatment of Onychomycosis (nail fungus) based on Moberg's patented proprietary formulation of terbinafine. In Canada, according to IQVIA, the total prescription market for Onychomycosis was greater than $82 million CDN at December 31, 2022 with a single product having over 90% market share. Craig Mull, Interim CEO of Cipher commented, "This is a fantastic achievement whereby the European Union has recognised MOB-015 as delivering quick visible improvements to patients living with nail fungus. We are excited about our partnership with Moberg Pharma, who have a strong track record developing and commercializing nail fungus products previously in both Europe and North America. This approval is a tremendous step in the right direction towards ultimately receiving market approval in Canada and the United States. We will continue to work closely with Moberg in making this clinically proven effective treatment available to Canadians as soon as possible." Moberg Pharma continues to invest and advance MOB-015 through an additional phase 3 trial of a total of 350 patients with sites across the United States and Canada. The purpose of this study is to facilitate market approval in North America as well as further strengthen the product's clinical evidence beyond the mycological and complete cure rates already demonstrated to the European Union. Patient enrollment in the clinical trial is progressing according to plan with full enrollment expected in 2023. About Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. Cipher Pharmaceuticalsis a specialty pharmaceutical company with a robust and diversified portfolio of commercial and early to late-stage products. Cipher acquires products that fulfill unmet medical needs, manages the required clinical development and regulatory approval process, and currently markets those products either directly in Canada or indirectly through partners in Canada, the U.S., and South America. About Moberg Pharma Moberg Pharma AB is a Swedish pharmaceutical company focused on commercializing proprietary innovations based on drug delivery of proven compounds. The company's main asset, MOB-015, is a novel topical treatment for onychomycosis. Data from phase 3 clinical trials in more than 800 patients for MOB-015 indicate that the product has the potential to become the future market leader in onychomycosis. Moberg Pharma has agreements with commercial partners in place in Europe and Japan, among others, and the company's goal is to receive its first market approval and launch MOB-015 in 2023.

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