| Welcome to FierceLifeSci Weekly Digest, your roundup of the biggest and most popular stories from each of our publications. | |
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Featured Story | | | Wednesday, August 30, 2017 In a historic day for cancer treatment and the larger biopharma industry, Novartis notched an FDA approval for its CAR-T treatment tisagenlecleucel, to be marketed as Kymriah, to treat pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Monday, August 28, 2017 Kite Pharma and its hotly anticipated CAR-T med nabbed an $11.9 billion buyout offer from Gilead Sciences, which has been shopping for oncology assets to diversify away from its flagging hepatitis C franchise. The deal beefs up Gilead's pipeline and puts it toe-to-toe with Novartis for the nascent CAR-T cancer therapy market. Monday, August 28, 2017 Cardiovascular drugs may not be the top field in terms of sales or market growth rate. But heart disease and related ailments remain the biggest cause of death in the U.S. We’ve put together this list in advance of this weekend’s European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona as a state-of-the-market snapshot. Monday, August 28, 2017 2016 was the year of the makeover. The top 10 medtech players are all in varying stages of transformation. Some companies, like Philips and Siemens, are well into their metamorphoses, while others, such as Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, made moves to overhaul their medtech businesses. Tuesday, August 29, 2017 Gilead executives didn't disclose much about their CAR-T pricing thoughts after the deal's announcement, but analysts expect Axi-Cel to rank among the world's most expensive. That puts Gilead alongside Novartis in stepped-up scrutiny for pricing on medications developed with federal funding. Tuesday, August 29, 2017 AstraZeneca has teamed up with Takeda to co-develop its preclinical Parkinson’s disease candidate MEDI1341. The deal sees Takeda commit to paying AstraZeneca up to $400 million (€332 million) for the chance to co-develop the alpha-synuclein antibody. Tuesday, August 29, 2017 With generics threatening its main moneymaking medication and an investor threatening its independence, Acorda has been pinning its hopes on approval of a new Parkinson’s disease drug. But that is now in jeopardy because of questions the FDA has about its manufacturing readiness. Monday, August 28, 2017 A team of researchers at the University of California has discovered an existing drug that boosts the production of immune cells known as “memory” CD8+ T cells. The finding could enhance both cancer immunotherapy and vaccine development. Tuesday, August 29, 2017 As part of a crackdown on stem cell treatment centers, the FDA seized a controlled smallpox vaccine from a clinic that had mixed it into an illegitimate cancer therapy. The Sanofi vaccine, which the government restricts for biodefense, is part of a national emergency stockpile. Thursday, August 31, 2017 Parexel says it has delivered revenue “beyond expectation” in one of its last financials before being merged into Pamplona Capital Management in a $5 billion deal. Resources Sponsored by: Ashfield Healthcare Join this webinar to learn how to design, deliver, and measure a successful patient support program. Presented by Nareda Mills, Ashfield's SVP of Patient Services in the US, you’ll discover how to improve adherence and improve patient outcomes using 5 key methods. |
