Therapeutic Specific Areas

The companies aim to advance research into inflammatory bowel disease.

FDA has approved Truxima (rituximab-abbs), a biosimilar to Roche’s anti-cancer biologic, Rituxan (rituximab).

This research proposes a method for separating and purifying tissue-type plasminogen activator from a fungal cell source.

The acquisition will give Genentech full rights to Jecure’s preclinical portfolio of NLRP3 inhibitors.

The companies will develop AMG 714, a novel anti-IL-15 monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of gluten-free diet non-responsive celiac disease in a collaboration worth $170 million.

More-and earlier-interaction between R&D and payers will be essential if innovative therapies are to become more accessible for patients, and more profitable for manufacturers, said panelists at the 2018 Galien Foundation Forum.

AbbVie will assume full development and commercial responsibility for its collaboration with Galapagos to discover and develop new therapies to treat cystic fibrosis (CF).

The companies will work together to advance a number of Morphic's oral integrin therapeutics for fibrosis-related indications in a deal with $100 million.

The companies will work together to develop Ionis-FB-LRx for the treatment of complement-mediated diseases, including Geographic Atrophy (GA), the advanced stage of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), in a deal worth $760 million.

Novartis plans to acquire Endocyte, a biopharmaceutical company, to accelerate the development of innovative radioligand technology for treating cancer.

Roche has acquired Tusk Therapeutics in a deal worth up to EUR 659 million (US$762 million).

The companies will work together to discover, develop, and commercialize immunotherapies for patients with solid-tumor cancers in a collaboration worth $695 million per program.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recently rejected National Health Service’s funding of Kymriah for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) despite recognizing that the drug has significant clinical benefits.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec) as the first treatment option for hereditary retinal dystrophy with mutations of the RPE65 gene.

The companies will develop therapies targeting the in-vivo elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with Precision’s proprietary genome editing platform.

The agency approved AstraZeneca’s Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk) injection for intravenous use for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory hairy cell leukemia.

The pharmaceutical, clinical, and bioanalytical contract solutions provider has implemented advanced techniques for the collection and use of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) for early-phase clinical trials at its Clinical Pharmacology Unit in Antwerp, Belgium.

Although there are some similarities between the way that US and European authorities uphold antibody patents, there are also some important differences.

The European Commission (EC) has approved Novartis’ chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) cell therapy Kymriah for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy.

Dompé Farmaceutici’s Oxervate (cenegermin), a topical eye drop, is the first treatment approved by the agency for neurotrophic keratitis, a rare disease affecting the cornea.

The acquisition will strengthen Astellas Pharma’s position in ophthalmology.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that diabetes drugs called thiazolidinediones can promote the metabolism of glutamine to help control disease-causing inflammation.

Stem-cell developer TiGenix has been acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical for approximately EUR 520 million (US$604 million).

The companies will work together to develop novel gamma delta T-cell receptor therapies in various cancers.

Novartis is set to partner with MorphoSys and Galapagos in a deal worth up to $1.1 billion to develop and commercialize their joint investigational, fully human, IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against the target IL-17C.

The acquisition would combine Sangamo’s ex vivo gene-editing capabilities with TxCell's regulatory T-cell (Treg) expertise to create chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-Treg therapies.

The company has run into a snag in producing Kymriah for the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patient population, the second indication for which the therapy was recently approved by FDA.

The pharma major intends to spinoff Alcon as a stand-alone eye-care devices company.

The European Medicines Agency recommended Novartis’ Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Kite’s Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, for approval in the European Union.

Safeguarding the know-how behind biopharmaceutical innovation is crucial to the industry’s future, but, in the US, some argue it is becoming increasingly difficult to do.