Novartis
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Nektar Therapeutics, based in San Francisco, and New York-based Pfizer are teaming up to evaluate combination regimens in several cancer settings. Those include metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and heck (SCCHN).
According to the American Cancer Society, almost 601,000 people in the U.S. died of cancer in 2017. The two most common types of cancer are lung cancer and breast cancer, followed by colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and stomach cancer.
Days after Novartis axed one-fifth of its research programs, the Swiss pharma giant said it intends to seek regulatory approval for 60 new treatments between 2019 and 2021.
The U.S. FDA approved Pfizer’s Lorbrena (lorlatinib) for ALK-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients whose disease hasn’t progressed on crizotinib and at least one other ALK inhibitor or for patients whose disease has progressed on alectinib or ceritinib as the first ALK inhibitor.
Biopharma companies set to release financial reports next week have reported positive news in recent months.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light to Hyrimoz, a biosimilar to AbbVie’s blockbuster drug Humira, five years ahead of the time it can be launched in U.S. markets.
In an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence, Alex Hoos, head of oncology at GSK, said the company could narrow its drug development focus to aim at products that will generate growth.
To suggest that the pharma industry is a reluctant partner in President Donald Trump’s attempts to decrease drug prices is to overstate the fact. But now the industry appears to be pushing back, at least a little bit.
According to Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, the company is cutting its drug programs from 430 to 340. One of the big areas the company is abandoning is infectious diseases. The decision is a result of a strategic review by Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, the company’s chief executive officer.
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