(Reuters) – The U.S. health regulator approved GW Pharmaceuticals Plc’s epilepsy treatment on Monday, making it the first cannabis-based drug to win approval in the country and opening floodgates for more research into the medicinal properties of cannabis. The... More »
(Reuters) – Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Monday it would stop developing its experimental treatment for pancreatic cancer after it failed to meet the main and secondary goals in a mid-stage trial. The company said it would now focus on developing othe... More »
Chicago (Reuters) – Mixed results over the weekend from closely watched studies combining Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s cancer immunotherapy with Nektar Therapeutics experimental drug NKTR-214, led at least one Wall Street analyst to reassess expectations. Bristol... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In an effort to increase competition and bring down prescription drug prices, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wants to speed approval times for rivals to promising new first-to-market medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration chi... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Some 70 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer and an intermediate risk of cancer recurrence can safely skip chemotherapy after their tumors have been removed, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. “This is a major finding,” said Dr. La... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Merck & Co’s immunotherapy Keytruda improved survival as a stand-alone treatment for newly-diagnosed lung cancer patients and with chemotherapy for hard-to-treat squamous cell lung cancer, new data released on Sunday showed, further cementi... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to streamline the approval process for cancer drugs, reviewing clinical trial data up front to make sure applications companies submit are complete. The new approach, outlined on Saturda... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In a disappointment for Roche Holding AG (ROG.S), two of its oncology drugs provided only modest protection from disease progression in lung cancer and breast cancer, according to data from separate clinical trials presented on Saturday. Ad... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – An experimental cancer drug from Loxo Oncology performed even better in patients with a rare mutation of the RET gene than previously reported, according to updated results from an early stage clinical trial presented on Saturday. Last mont... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Lynch syndrome, a rare hereditary disease typically associated with an increased risk of colorectal and endometrial cancers, appears to be linked with several additional types of cancer than previously thought, U.S. researchers said on Satu... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Patients with advanced multiple myeloma treated with bluebird bio’s experimental immunotherapy lived for a median of nearly a year before their cancer worsened, according to data from a small study presented on Friday. The treatment, called... More »
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Shares in Danish biotech Genmab fell by as much as 25 percent on Monday after its partner Johnson & Johnson decided to ditch a study using its blockbuster cancer drug. Genmab said Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson business, had decided that t... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice has joined whistleblower litigation accusing Insys Therapeutics Inc of trying to generate more profit by paying kickbacks to doctors to prescribe powerful opioid medications. The government’s involvement was disclosed... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Trump administration is considering expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate the cost of drugs by giving private payers a role in setting the price of medicines administered in hospitals and doctors’ offices, Health and Hum... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb on Thursday questioned whether rebates that drugmakers provide to health insurers should remain protected by federal law, sparking new concerns on Wall Street over efforts to curb drug pricing.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists have developed a far more accurate blood test to diagnose peanut allergy, offering a better way to monitor a significant food hazard. Peanuts are the most common cause of fatal food-induced anaphylaxis, or severe allergic ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – In London’s world-famous Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, Dr. Karin Straathof is excited about a new cell-based medicine that offers hope for toddlers with incurable nerve tissue cancer. Her progress with a handful of children for wh... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Friday it would require Impax Laboratories Inc and privately held Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC to divest rights to 10 generic medications as a condition of their merger. The FTC said that under the... More »
(Reuters) – Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc topped analysts’ forecasts for quarterly profit on Thursday, led by stronger-than expected sales of its latest cystic fibrosis drug as well as double-digit growth in sales of older treatments. Boston-based Vertex, like ot... More »
(Reuters) – AbbVie Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, on higher sales of its rheumatoid arthritis treatment Humira and its Hepatitis C drugs, leading the company to raise its full-year earnings forecast. The company’s shares, whi... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors stormed back into the market for the riskiest corporate debt during the latest week, Lipper data showed on Thursday, pumping the most cash into U.S.-based, high-yield bond funds in over 16 months. The resurgence in demand for hig... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – General Electric is raising its bet on biotechnology with the launch of prefabricated manufacturing units for producing virus-based gene and cell therapies, novel anti-cancer treatments and vaccines. Interest in such medicines, which use eng... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline is divesting its rare disease gene therapy drugs to private biotech company Orchard Therapeutics as Chief Executive Emma Walmsley makes good on her promise to prune the drugmaker’s pharmaceuticals portfolio. Financially, the ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Most Americans aren’t aware of cancer drug shortages that might lead some patients to receive less effective or more toxic treatments, a U.S. study suggests. In a nationally representative survey of 420 adults, just 16 percent said they knew... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund investors pulled back from the stock market for a third straight week, withdrawing $11.6 billion in cash in the week ended Wednesday, in the face of a potential full-blown trade war between the United States and China, Lipper dat... More »
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc’s experimental drug to treat a rare and fatal disease linked to heart failure reduced deaths and need for hospitalizations in a late-stage study. The company’s clinical study investigated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of an oral ... More »
FILE PHOTO: French multinational pharmaceutical company SANOFI logo is seen at the headquarters in Paris, France, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo (Reuters) – A potent, expensive cholesterol drug sold by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi s... More »
(Reuters) – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said on Saturday they would be willing to charge less for their potent cholesterol drug, Praluent, if insurers agree to lessen onerous access barriers for high-risk patients. Since the approvals in 2015 o... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mylan NV on Wednesday struck a licensing agreement with Revance Therapeutics Inc to develop a biosimilar of Allergan Plc’s blockbuster Botox wrinkle treatment. The deal includes an upfront payment of $25 million to Revance, Mylan said. Re... More »
(Reuters) – KemPharm Inc said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its opioid painkiller Apadaz for the short-term management of acute pain, sending the shares of the drugmaker up as much as 36 percent in late afternoon trading. The company... More »
(Reuters) – A European Medicines Agency (EMA) panel on Friday recommended against approving Puma Biotechnology’s lead breast cancer drug, an outcome the U.S drugmaker had signaled last month. The EMA said the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHM... More »
The logo of Gilead Sciences Inc is pictured during a news conference in New Delhi September 15, 2014. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo (Reuters) – A federal judge in Delaware has overturned a jury’s verdict requiring Gilead Sciences Inc to pay a record $2... More »
FILE PHOTO: – A view shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland August 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday declined to approve Apricus Biosciences In... More »
FILE PHOTO: – A view shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland August 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday declined to approve Apricus Biosciences In... More »
A worker collects cuttings from a marijuana plant at the Canopy Growth Corporation facility in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada, January 4, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie TORONTO (Reuters) – Canopy Growth Corp, one of the world’s biggest medical marijuana producers, ... More »
FILE PHOTO – A view shows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland August 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have proposed lowering the bar for clinical trial success for experimental ... More »
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund investors sucked $23.9 billion out of the stock market during the latest week, marking the largest wit... More »
FILE PHOTO: A box of the Fentanyl-based drug Subsys, made by Insys Therapeutics Inc, appears in an undated photograph provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama/Hando... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Array BioPharma Inc on Thursday sued AstraZeneca AB, accusing the pharmaceutical company of refusing to pay required royalties for a cancer drug after entering into an $8.5 billion collaboration with Merck & Co. In a complaint filed in the... More »
FILE PHOTO: The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hangs on the wall at SEC headquarters in Washington, DC, U.S., June 24, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed an insider trading... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. technology stock funds took in more cash in the week ended Jan. 24 than in any week since the turn-of-the-century bubble, Lipper said on Thursday, offering further evidence that investors’ wariness about markets has given way to exube... More »
Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two cloned long tailed macaque monkeys are seen at the Non-Primate facility at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, China January 10, 2018. Picture taken January 10, 2018. Qiang Sun and Mu-ming Poo, Chinese Academy of Sciences ... More »
French multinational pharmaceutical company SANOFI logo seen at their headquater in Paris, France, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer – D1AESRMWVNAA PARIS (Reuters) – French healthcare group Sanofi has agreed to buy U.S. haemophilia specialist Bioverativ ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Shares in French drugmaker Sanofi fell on Monday after the company announced a $11.6 billion takeover of U.S. haemophilia treatment specialist Bioverativ, with some traders saying the price looked expensive. Sanofi shares were down 2.3 percen... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A private British company developing a vaccine that would be the first in the world to fight all types of flu has raised 20 million pounds ($27 million) from investors including GV, the venture capital arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc. Vacc... More »
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. investors poured $4.7 billion into so-called socially responsible mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Global drugmakers are looking to a tiny biotech’s $850,000 therapy for a rare type of blindness as a model for getting paid for highly expensive – and effective – new medicines. Spark Therapeutics Inc plans to launch its recently appr... More »
The Kodak logo is shown on a booth during the 2017 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 6, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of Eastman Kodak Co (KODK.N) more than doubled on Tuesday after the one-time leader in photography became ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors sitting on U.S. stock returns need a place to put the money, and the big winners are international markets and high-rated debt issuers from corporations to governments. U.S. fund investors pulled $8.4 billion from stocks and funn... More »
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is seen outside their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche (ROG.S) will buy U.S. cancer drugmaker Ignyta Inc (RXDX.O) ... More »
(Reuters) – Ignyta Inc is in advanced talks to sell itself, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, just three years after the U.S. cancer drugmaker became a public company focused on precision drugs and diagnostics. The deal would come as large phar... More »
(Reuters) – La Jolla Pharmaceutical said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its drug, Giapreza, to treat dangerously low blood pressure. The company said it plans to make Giapreza available for patients in the United States in March... More »
A girl wearing a mask looks out a car window as rain drops are seen in Taif June 7, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Alhwaity CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Tuesday lifted a 2014 temporary ban on funding research involving the flu and other pathogens in which... More »
Vials of MPC-150-IM, Mesoblast’s stem cell product, are seen in this undated handout photo received December 14, 2017. Mesoblast/Handout via REUTERS NEW YORK (Reuters) – The early hope that stem cell therapy would make the paralyzed walk, the blind see and cur... More »
(Reuters) – Aclaris Therapeutics Inc’s drug to treat a common kind of skin growth called seborrheic keratoses received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the company said on Friday. It is the only topical medicine for the condition to receive... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc to restart clinical trials on a drug to treat patients with a rare bleeding disorder, the company said on Friday. All ongoing studies of the drug, fitusiran, had been pla... More »
The logo of German pharmaceuticals company Merck is seen in front of the company’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE) is reviving plans to bring an oral multiple sclero... More »
(Reuters) – More than half of patients with advanced multiple myeloma who had run out of therapeutic options remained in complete remission after receiving bluebird bio Inc’s experimental gene-modifying immunotherapy in a small, early stage study, according to... More »
Swiss drugmaker Roche’s logo is seen at their headquarters in Basel, Switzerland January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann ZURICH (Reuters) – Scientists at Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Friday they may have discovered why some tumors resist new immunotherapy dru... More »
(Reuters) – Drug developer Sage Therapeutics Inc’s shares soared as much as 85 percent to a record high on Thursday after its experimental drug to reduce the symptoms of depression succeeded in a mid-stage trial. Sage’s shares were up 73 percent at $159, on tr... More »
Rodents have joined mosquitoes in the cross-hairs of scientists working on a next-generation genetic technology known as "gene drive" to control pests. More »
FILE PHOTO – U.S. Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Seema Verma (C) is joined by Concerned Women for America CEO Penny Nance (L) as she talks to reporters about President Trump’s signing of House Resolution 43, which allows ... More »
(Reuters) – Indivior’s experimental drug to help fight America’s growing opioid addiction crisis was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration late on Thursday, boosting its sales prospects as competitors threaten revenues from an older product. Shares... More »
FILE PHOTO: Genmab Chief Executive Jan van de Winkel poses for a photograph in London, Britain, October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Ben Hirschler/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) – Genmab (GEN.CO) was Europe’s second biggest biotech company, until its partner Johnson & Johns... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A test from Foundation Medicine Inc that can detect cancer-causing mutations in 324 genes has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agencies said. The test, known as F... More »
LEVERKUSEN, Germany (Reuters) – Bayer is seeking to defend its pharmaceuticals business that will be diluted in importance by the takeover of Monsanto and faces a threat to revenues in 2024 when the blockbuster heart drug Xarelto loses its patent. The firm’s p... More »
A digital pill with an embedded sensor to track if patients are taking their medication. REUTERS/Proteus Digital Health (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have approved the first digital pill with an embedded sensor to track if patients are taking their medication pr... More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that it had approved Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd's Abilify MyCite, the first drug with a digital ingestion tracking system to be approved in the United States. More »
A group of prominent hedge funds have roared back with market-trouncing returns in 2017, helping the industry score its best performance in at least four years in a surprise rebound for an often maligned pocket of Wall Street. More »
U.S. investors favored international stock markets, pushing $4.1 billion into equity funds focused abroad during the most recent week, dodging risks at home, Lipper data showed on Thursday. More »
Dynavax Technologies Corp's hepatitis B vaccine won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval on the third attempt and Chief Executive Eddie Gray told Reuters the company was open to, but not waiting for, a partner to market the drug. More »
Health insurer Anthem Inc has eased access to Sarepta Therapeutics' treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and on Thursday changed its reimbursement policy on its website to "medically necessary." More »
Johnson & Johnson's blockbuster psoriasis drug Stelara led to a significant reduction in disease activity in patients with systemic lupus compared with a placebo in a midstage clinical trial, according to data released on Saturday. More »
CVS Health Corp’s planned US$66bn buy of Aetna Inc is poised to boost the healthcare sector’s share of US investment-grade mergers and acquisitions lending beyond its current one-third share of the US$122bn total as the sector remains a bright spot in an other... More »
The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc, John Kapoor, has resigned from the company's board of directors, Insys said in a statement on Sunday. More »
Merck & Co (MRK.N) on Friday said quarterly sales of its Keytruda cancer immunotherapy exceeded $1 billion for the first time, but it withdrew an application for European use of the drug in lung cancer, raising questions about future sales. More »
The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc was arrested on Thursday on U.S. charges he participated in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, marking a step by authorities to fight the opioid epidemic. More »
Investors endured jolts to both stocks and bonds, pouring even more cash into funds tracking both markets during the latest week, according to Lipper data released on Thursday. More »
U.S. scientists on Wednesday unveiled two new molecular editing tools designed to fix mutations that cause the majority of human genetic diseases, some of which have no known treatment. More »
GlaxoSmithKline has won U.S. approval for a new and improved shingles vaccine, the second of three key products for which the British drugmaker expects approval this year. More »
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said on Monday their drug to treat inflammation in the esophagus, mainly caused by food allergies, met the main goal of a mid-stage study. More »
Exelixis Inc's drug to treat a type of liver cancer improved overall survival in patients in a late-stage study that prompted an independent expert group to recommend no further trial, sending the company's shares soaring 31 percent. More »
Spark Therapeutics Inc's experimental gene therapy for a rare form of blindness improves vision and should be approved, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration concluded on Thursday, paving the way for the first U.S. gene therapy for an inherited disease. More »
The Trump Administration threw its support behind a public-private partnership with 11 drug companies to advance a new class of drugs that uses the body's immune system to fight cancer. More »
Flexion Therapeutics Inc said its injectable drug to treat osteoarthritis-related knee pain was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, sending the drug developer's shares soaring to a record high in regular trading on Friday. More »
New Jersey on Thursday accused Insys Therapeutics Inc of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to boost sales of a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, as Massachusetts announced a $500,000 settlement with the drugmaker to resolve similar allegations. More »
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Eli Lilly and Co in a patent dispute over its cancer drug Alimta with Neptune Generics LLC and Sandoz Inc. More »
A trio of Swiss, American and British scientists won the 2017 Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for developing cryo-electron microscopy, allowing researchers to see biological molecules frozen in action. More »
A seasonal flu vaccine that would be the first in the world to fight all types of the virus is to be tested in a two-year clinical trial involving more than 2,000 patients by researchers in Oxford. More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced a series of measures designed to speed to market generic versions of complex drugs such as Mylan NV's emergency EpiPen in an effort to address the rising cost of pharmaceuticals. More »
PTC Therapeutics Inc's experimental drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a devastating degenerative disease that mostly affects young boys, may work but the company will need to do more work to prove it, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Admini... More »
PureTech subsidiary Gelesis is moving closer to filing for regulatory approval of its obesity treatment Gelesis100 after results of its latest study, it said on Monday. More »
Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc will plead guilty to two misdemeanors and pay $40.1 million to resolve investigations into its marketing and sales of an expensive cholesterol drug, U.S. authorities said on Friday. More »
Nabriva Therapeutics Plc shares more than doubled in premarket trading on Monday after the company said its experimental antibiotic for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia met the main goal of a late-stage study. More »
French biotech company Neovacs is confident that its experimental drug to treat lupus could grab significant market share from standard treatments of the auto-immune disease, its chief executive said. More »
U.S. fund investors sought shelter during the latest week, pouring more than double the amount from the previous week into money markets, and stockpiling the most in "safe haven" Treasuries in more than a year, Lipper data showed on Thursday. More »
Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, said it would discontinue further development of its hepatitis C research, citing increased availability of a number of effective hepatitis C therapies. More »
Sanofi and Regeneron's biotech drug dupilumab scored a hit in treating severe asthma, clinical trial data showed on Monday, raising competition in an expected multibillion-dollar market. More »
Swiss drugmaker Novartis notched a trial win for its drug cocktail against skin cancer on Monday, while a rival treatment from Roche with slipping sales failed in a separate study with a similar patient group. More »
A new blood test from Roche and Foundation Medicine has shown it can accurately measure the number of mutations within a tumor, potentially helping to predict which patients may respond best to some immunotherapies. More »
