The UKHSA has warned that further outbreaks of measles could spread to other towns and cities unless uptake in the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination is increased in at-risk areas.

Www.pharmatimes.com/intcr

DermaSensor has announced that the FDA has granted clearance for its real-time, non-invasive skin cancer evaluation system.

International Clinical Trials

Welcome to the January/February 2024 issue of Pharmafocus!

Welcome to the January/February 2024 issue of Pharmafocus!

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BioNTech has announced that it has reached the next milestone in the establishment of its mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacities in Africa, with the introduction of the new site in Kigali, Rwanda.

Eli Lilly has announced its new digital healthcare experience, LillyDirect, which will benefit patients in the US with obesity, migraine and diabetes. This is intended to offer resources around disease management, such as access to healthcare providers, tailored support and delivery of selected medications.

C4X Discovery Holdings has announced that it has received a milestone payment of $11m from AstraZeneca, which was triggered by the preclinical progress of C4XD’s NRF2 activator programme.

Verastem Oncology has announced that the FDA has granted fast track designation for the company’s investigational raf/mek clamp, avutometinib, in combination with amgen’s kras g12c inhibitor, lumakras (sotorasib) for the treatment of patients with kras g12c-mutant metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

GSK has announced positive results from a planned analysis of the second part of the RUBY/ENGOT-EN6/GOG3031/NSGO phase 3 trial

Novo Nordisk has shared topline results from the COMBINE 3 phase 3a trial of once-weekly Icosema, a fixed-ratio combination treatment consisting of basal insulin icodec and semaglutide.

Daiichi Sankyo has announced results from the phase 2 valentine-ptcl01 trial of Ezharmia (valemetostat tosilate), which demonstrated a clinically meaningful and durable response in patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral t-cell lymphoma.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has announced positive data from its pivotal linker-mm1 trial, which evaluated linvoseltamab as a treatment for adult patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Www.flypharmaeurope.com

Merck has announced that the FDA has approved Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with chemoradiotherapy for the treatment of figo (international federation of gynecology and obstetrics) 2014 stage iii-iva cervical cancer.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced that the FDA has approved a supplemental new drug application for Balversa (erdafitinib) for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma with susceptible fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 genetic alterations whose disease has progressed on or after one prior treatment.

Www.pharmafile.com

AstraZeneca and Ionis have announced that the FDA has approved Wainua (eplontersen) for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (haattr-pn or attrv-pn) in adult patients.

Calliditas Therapeutics has announced that the FDA has approved Tarpeyo (budesonide) delayed release capsules to reduce the loss of kidney function in adults with primary immunoglobin a nephropathy at risk of disease progression.

Communique.awardsplatform.com

Gilead Sciences and Compugen have announced that they have entered an exclusive licence agreement for Compugen’s potential first in class, preclinical antibody programme against il-18 binding protein, including the com503 drug candidate.

Genentech has announced that it has entered into a multi-year strategic research collaboration with NVIDIA that is intended to pair Genentech’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, biological and molecular data sets and research expertise with NVIDIA's accelerated computing capabilities and AI in order to speed up drug discovery and development.

Www.samedanltd.com

Owkin and Merck, known as MSD outside of the US and Canada, have announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement for the development and commercialisation of AI-powered digital pathology diagnostics for the European Union (EU) market.

Alphamab Oncology and 3DMedicines have announced that they have entered into a licence agreement with Glenmark Speciality, a subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, for the subcutaneous injection pd-l1 antibody drug, known as envafolimab.

Sanofi and Inhibrx, Inc have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Sanofi to acquire Inhibrx following the spin-off of non-inbrx-101 assets into New Inhibrx.

GSK and Aiolos Bio have announced that they have entered into an agreement for GSK to acquire Aiolos for an initial $1bn upfront payment along with up to $400m in success-based regulatory milestone payments.

Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) and Harpoon Therapeutics have announced that they have entered a definitive agreement for Merck, through a subsidiary, to acquire Harpoon for an approximate total equity value of $680m or $23 per share.

Paul Reed and Annabelle Gall at Research Partnership, an Inizio Advisory company, consider the benefits and drawbacks of AI, especially in terms of diversity and synthetic patients

Lykke Pedersen from Abzu considers the benefits of AI and its different applications within the pharma industry

Soraya Bekkali from Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, explains why the EU must act in 2024 to tackle the health equity crisis that people living with rare diseases face every day

Www.pharmatimes.com/croy

Pauline Roudot from Novartis considers the path to approval for paediatric medications

With the first ever COP health event being held in December 2023, Shishir Patel from Chiesi UK and Ireland reflects on the need to align environmental and health strategies and shares his work building a clearer picture of how climate change can impact respiratory health

Betsy Goodfellow from Pharmafocus considers how the UK’s ageing population impacts general health trends, focusing on how a greater proportion of people’s lives are spent in ill health as more people are living much longer

Betsy Goodfellow from Pharmafocus considers the current state of the NHS amid ongoing strikes and ever-growing waiting lists, as well as the impact of the infectious illnesses circulating during the winter months

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BenevolentAI has announced that it has appointed Dr Joerg Moeller MD PhD as its new chief executive officer and executive board member, the changes will be effective immediately.

Sosei Group corporation has announced the appointment of Toshihiro Maeda as chief operating officer (COO).

X-Chem has announced that it is making changes to its executive management team, with Karen Lackey, the current chief scientific officer (CSO), becoming chief executive officer (CEO) and Matthew Clark, the current CEO pivoting to the role of president and CSO.

Cellular Origins has announced that it has appointed Peter Crossley as chief operating officer (COO).

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