A recent study showed ustekinumab can be used to treat teens with moderate to severe psoriasis. Also, Phase 2 trials for an analgesic combination drug show it holds promise for reducing post-operative pain…
ZURICH (Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted Novartis unit Sandoz’s regulatory submission for approval of a biosimilar copy of Amgen’s blockbuster anti-TNF drug Enbrel, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday. Enbrel, or etanercept as the drug is known generically, is a big prize since it was the world’s fifth-biggest selling medicine in 2014…
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s research chief said on Tuesday the drug industry must act responsibly when it comes to pricing medications, given the mounting anger over the high cost of therapies in the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton brought new attention to the issue last week, proposing to cap patients’ treatment costs,…
Severe and disabling joint pain has been connected to the use of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and combination therapies for diabetes, prompting a new FDA warning…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—What the Food and Drug Administration calls a ‘breakthrough’ drug is often not the same as what a layperson would call a breakthrough, a new study shows. The FDA uses the term more often, and for smaller advances, than people use it colloquially, and this may lead patients to have unwarranted confidence…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Certain rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients doing well on etanercept and methotrexate may be able to quit the latter agent if they have tolerability problems, according to an open-label Canadian study. In a Sept. 11 online paper in Rheumatology, Dr. Boulos Haraoui, of the University of Montreal, and colleagues noted that although combination…
The FDA has approved new labeling for infused golimumab to include measures of mental and physical health. Plus romosozumab meets primary endpoints in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis during a Phase 3 trial…
Guselkumab Studied to Treat RA & Plaque Psoriasis Guselkumab (GUS) is a subcutaneously administered monoclonal antibody that targets interleukin (IL) 23.1 It is being investigated in a Phase 2 study to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsA). On June 11, 2015, at the 2015 meeting of the European League Against…
(Reuters)—Drug developer XenoPort Inc. said on Tuesday its experimental drug was effective in treating psoriasis, sending its shares up 19% in premarket trading. The oral drug met the main goal in a phase 2 trial of patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque-type psoriasis, the company said. XenoPort said it expected to start late-stage trials next year…