To view this email as a web page, click here

July 10, 2017

Subscribe

Our Team

Contact Us

FierceBiotech Logo

 

Today's Rundown

  1. FDA outlines ‘Innovation Initiative,’ Cures plans to speed up drug development

  2. Safety the priority for Novartis’ CAR-T as AdComm documents released

  3. Shire gets injunction against hemophilia rival Roche over 'misleading' case for potential blockbuster emicizumab

  4. Inotek on its knees after back-to-back glaucoma trial flops

  5. Emmaus bags FDA approval for sickle cell therapy; now comes the hard part

  6. Widely used malaria drug may shield fetuses from Zika infection

  7. Owlstone, CRUK start hunt for breath biomarkers of cancer

Featured Story

FDA outlines ‘Innovation Initiative,’ Cures plans to speed up drug development

The FDA and its new Trump-picked commissioner Scott Gottlieb took to social media to talk up the agency’s plans to speed up the drug regulation process.

Top Stories

Safety the priority for Novartis’ CAR-T as AdComm documents released

Ahead of the first-ever FDA AdComm for a CAR-T medication, the agency says experts should focus on the safety side of the new med, more than efficacy.

Shire gets injunction against hemophilia rival Roche over 'misleading' case for potential blockbuster emicizumab

Shire has obtained a preliminary injunction to stop Roche spreading “inaccurate and misleading” statements about clinical trial data. The legal tussle centers on Roche’s attempt to pin the blame for blood clotting in patients in its phase 3 emicizumab program on Shire’s bypassing agent Feiba. 

Inotek on its knees after back-to-back glaucoma trial flops

Inotek Pharmaceuticals has posted its second set of subpar data of 2017. The latest readout shows the addition of Inotek’s trabodenoson to glaucoma patients’ regimens failed to perform better than latanoprost alone, wiping 45% off the company’s share price and prompting it to seek strategic alternatives.

Emmaus bags FDA approval for sickle cell therapy; now comes the hard part

An FDA greenlight for sickle cell disease therapy Endari has catapulted its developer, Emmaus Medical, into the spotlight, but commercializing the new drug could be challenging.

Widely used malaria drug may shield fetuses from Zika infection

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been searching for ways to create barriers that shield fetuses from Zika infection. Now, they've discovered that they can manipulate autophagy—the process by which a placental barrier is created—using a common and inexpensive malaria drug.

Owlstone, CRUK start hunt for breath biomarkers of cancer

Owlstone Medical and Cancer Research UK have begun a clinical trial designed to identify biomarkers of cancer in breath samples. The goal is to find volatile organic compounds that indicate the presence of cancer, enabling physicians to make quick, noninvasive diagnoses. 

News of Note

Concert Pharmaceuticals has seen the FDA lift the clinical hold on its CTP-543 phase 2a trial for alopecia areata, as the company plans to resume enrollment later this month and expects to complete the trial in the second half of 2018. Release

Ignyta has been granted an orphan drug tag from the FDA for entrectinib in NTRK fusion-positive solid tumors. Statement

PDS Biotechnology is the latest in a long line of biotechs to team up with Merck in a combo trial of its drug and Keytruda. Release

Resources

[Whitepaper] Industry Report: Findings from the 2017 Unified Clinical Operations Survey

Learn why 99% of respondents report the need to unify their clinical applications, including CTMS, EDC, eTMF, and study start-up.

[Whitepaper] Make Your Clinical Trials a Success

Gain critical insights into how to design and implement pragmatic trials and generate relevant, high-level real-world evidence. Learn when to conduct PTs, design considerations, ethical regulatory issues — and more.

[Whitepaper] Enable better radiation therapy study results

Discover the factors that contribute to differential radiation sensitivity between the Rag2 and SCID models.

[Webinar] Within-Subject Clinical Trials: Intro to New Methods & Stat. Models

In this webinar, we will introduce the rapidly-evolving within-subject clinical trial (WSCT) methods for early phase evidence generation that require fewer people, less time, and usually less funding than traditional early phase methods.

[Webinar] Leveraging Medical Insights for Better Healthcare Engagement

Join this global webinar to learn a new approach for demonstrating medical affairs' impact with better metrics - beyond reach and frequency, enabling launch success and better engagement with strategic KOL insights, and increasing your organization's share of voice in the healthcare landscape.

[Whitepaper] The Paperless Future of Healthcare and Life Sciences

DocuSign’s eSignature solutions modernize healthcare and life science organizations by eliminating paper and antiquated signature processes while meeting compliance requirements and reducing costs and errors.

[Whitepaper] DocuSign Life Sciences eBook: Reducing Cycle Time with Digital Transaction Management

The patients who rely on your scientific leadership are expecting more.

[Whitepaper] Streamline Regulatory Compliance in Life Sciences with Digital Transaction Management

The U.S. Department of Justice has collected upwards of $17 billion in settlements from the healthcare industry since 2009, including more than $2 billion from a single life sciences company.

Events

.