Novartis has reported positive results from a late-stage clinical trial showing that its monoclonal antibody erenumab provided relief to patients with migraine who have been unsuccessful in treating their disease with two to four other therapies.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co has reported positive results for a checkpoint inhibitor combination therapy in patients with a specific type of metastatic colorectal cancer. It combines Opdivo (nivolumab), a PD-1 inhibitor, and Yervoy (ipilimumab), an inhibitor of CTLA-4.
A Phase 3 trial of a novel anticancer drug developed by Spain’s PharmaMar SA for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer failed to reach its primary endpoint of progression free survival compared with topotecan chemotherapy or liposomal doxorubicin. The drug, Zepsyre (lurbinectedin), inhibits RNA polymerase II.
An early-stage trial of a medicine designed to enhance the effects of radiotherapy has produced promising data from patients with liver cancers. The medicine, NBTXR3, achieved a complete response in three out of seven patients who were eligible for evaluation.
Belgium-based iTeos Therapeutics SA has regained rights to an early-stage cancer drug from Pfizer Inc which was being investigated in a Phase 1 trial as a potential single agent for treating patients with malignant gliomas.
A Phase 2 study of a new antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has failed to meet its primary endpoint using an adaptive trial design that was intended to show efficacy at 12 months. Biogen Inc and Eisai Co Ltd said the blinded study will continue until the second half of 2018.
Pending regulatory approval, a first clinical trial of a gene edited treatment for patients with beta-thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, will start in Europe in early 2018. The therapy has been developed by CrisprTherapeutics AG and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
OSE Immunotherapeutics SA is set to resume recruitment into a Phase 3 trial of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following a pause in June to enable investigators to have more time to assess the effect of the treatment which is a neoantigen therapy called Tedopi.
Avelumab, a checkpoint antibody that is the mainstay of Merck KGaA’s immuno-oncology portfolio, has failed to show superior overall survival in patients with metastatic gastric cancer compared with chemotherapy. The data is from a Phase 3 trial called Javelin Gastric 300.
An immuno-oncology combination that had initially produced an objective response in a Phase 1/2 trial of patients with head and neck cancer, failed to show benefit in an extended patient population, Innate Pharma SA announced on 22 November.