pharmaceutical

The Brussels-based pharmaceutical company UCB has announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved a label extension for Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), to include a new indication in adult patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

The approval of the monoclonal antibody signals the multinational company’s entry into immune-dermatology. With an estimated 3% of the population or approximately 125 million people suffering from psoriasis across the globe, the disease area is one in which significant unmet need exists.

IMAGE: PTC Therapeutics

Biogen currently has the only product on the market approved to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), in Spinraza, and that treatment is pretty central to the biotech’s portfolio, bringing in $364 million in revenue in the first quarter.

So, news that a competitor had posted strong results at Phase 1, with a more convenient method of delivery came as a blow to the company – enough to send shares down over 5%.

Roche has clearly seen significant potential in Foundation Medicine’s work in genomics to pay $2.4 billion to take complete ownership of the company.

The big pharma company had already owned 58% of shares in Foundation Medicine, but decided to buy out the remaining shares to take the complete valuation of the company to $5.3 billion.

Foundation Medicine was founded in 2010 and is based just outside of Boston. It specialised in developing diagnostic tools to allow for targeted therapies to be chosen for patients.

IMAGE: Glenn Fawcett

Going from the youngest female self-made billionaire in the world to being charged with engaging in schemes to defraud investors is a pretty spectacular fall from grace but that’s the fate of Elizabeth Holmes.

Once feted as the second-coming of Steve Jobs, Holmes had surged to fame as her company, Theranos, claimed to have developed a device that could analyse for a broad spectrum of diseases through just a pinprick of blood.

Since the introduction of the vaccination against the Human Papilloma Virus in 2008, there has been an 86% drop in the incidence of infection in women aged 16 to 21.

Recurrent HPV infections are the main cause of the majority of cases of cervical cancer and the introduction of vaccination for girls aged between 12 and 13 was brought in to protect women from facing the prospect of developing the cancer.

Image: Arno Mikkor

Theresa May finally attempted to tackle the elephant in the room for the UK government, well, the one other than progression of Brexit discussions, by pledging that the NHS would receive a funding boost of £20 billion per year.

The amount promised by May amounts to an increase in spending of 3.4% on the NHS annually, after a period under the coalition government where funding was limited to 1.1% increases and then rises averaging 2.3% under the Conservative government.

Another busy in week in pharma has seen a number of companies release promising data on their drugs, Roche's study highlighting the benefit of Ocrevus to MS patients. While in other news, J&J is looking to rid itself of excess weight and Mylan get hit by an FDA sucker punch.

Check out the week's ten most popular articles on Pharmafile.com now!

10. Danger of Sanofi’s dengue vaccine confirmed in new study

Teva has been doing some major global restructuring since Kare Schultz came to the helm of the embattled, Israeli drugmaker. So deep were the cuts in Israel that a general strike briefly shut down most of the country, including its airport and banking services, in December 2017.

Undeterred, Shultz has pushed ahead and expanded those cuts to the North American market, shedding 200 workers from its North American headquarters in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the year.