The Roche group said that its investigational hedgehog pathway inhibitor, vismodegib, which is being developed to treat advanced basal cell carcinoma, met its primary endpoint of overall response in a pivotal Phase 2 clinical study.
Novartis said that its Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, ruxolitinib, has met its primary endpoint of significantly reducing spleen size in patients with myelofibrosis, a blood cancer characterised by bone marrow failure, in a second Phase 3 trial.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc said top-line results from the second of three Phase 3 trials of an investigational drug designed to improve the symptoms of patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease had shown an improvement in symptoms versus the control.
Chroma Therapeutics Ltd is set to receive $5 million upfront from Cell Therapeutics Inc of Seattle, Washington has part of a co-development and licensing agreement for the candidate cancer drug, tosedostat. The drug is being tested in AML.
Tolerx Inc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc announced that a Phase 3 trial of otelixizumab for patients with new-onset Type 1 diabetes did not meet the primary efficacy endpoint of change in C-peptide, a marker of beta cell function, at 12 months.
Sanofi-Aventis SA and its partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, have announced that their Phase 3 trial of the candidate drug, aflibercept, for second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, combined with docetaxel, did not extend overall survival.
The US Food and Drug Administration announced that it has taken action against the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, McNeil-PPC, for failing to comply with current good manufacturing practice requirements at three sites.
Bavarian Nordic A/S is considering a rights issue to help finance a Phase 3 trial of its therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer, Prostvac. The Danish company earlier reached an agreement with the FDA on the design and endpoints for a pivotal study.
Evotec AG has announced the establishment of a research collaboration with Harvard University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US to discover and develop new treatments for diabetes. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The US Food and Drug Administration has announced the approval of Benlysta (belimumab) to treat patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. It is the first new drug to be approved for this disease since 1955. The developers are GSK and Human Genome Sciences.