Biotech and Pharmaceuticals Medicine

Baricitinib, in a class of drugs known as Jak inhibitors, is sold in the European Union under the brand name Olumiant for treating rheumatoid arthritis. The study, presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology annual meeting in Geneva, involved patients who had failed to achieve adequate relief after four weeks of using a mid-potency...

Sept 14- Pfizer Inc and Japan's Astellas Pharma Inc said on Thursday their prostate cancer drug met the main goal of a trial testing it for a more common form of the disease. Astellas owns the rights to sell Xtandi outside the United States. More than 161,000 men are estimated to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017 in the United States, according to the...

Sept 14- Pfizer Inc and Astellas Pharma Inc said on Thursday their drug to treat a type of prostate cancer met the main goal in a late-stage trial. More than 161,000 men are estimated to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017, according to the American Cancer Society. Pfizer acquired Medivation Inc in 2016, taking on its earlier agreement with Japan's...

Sept 14- Pfizer Inc and Astellas Pharma Inc said on Thursday their drug to treat a type of prostate cancer met the main goal of improving overall survival in a late-stage trial. The oral drug, Xtandi, in combination with an anti-hormone therapy was more successful than an anti-hormone therapy alone in improving overall survival in men with non-metastatic...

*Wound drug misses main goals in late-stage study. Sept 13- Amicus Therapeutics Inc said on Wednesday it would stop developing its experimental drug for healing wounds related to a rare skin disease, but shares of the company rose as investors appeared to focus on the drug developer's expanding pipeline. Investors had been "very cautious" about Amicus's EB...

*Drug fails to meet main goal. Sept 12- Sage Therapeutics Inc's shares tumbled 23 percent on Tuesday after its drug to treat a life-threatening seizure disorder failed to meet the main goal of a key trial, raising concerns about the future of the study. "The SRSE study showed little signal and we'd be very surprised if Sage continued clinical development in this...

Sept 12- Sage Therapeutics Inc said on Tuesday its drug to treat a life-threatening seizure disorder failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage trial, sending its shares down about 24 percent. SRSE accounts for about 25,000 to 41,000 cases each year in the United States and there are currently no treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for...

PARIS, Sept 11- Shares of Regeneron Inc and Sanofi SA slid on Monday after late-stage trial data for their asthma drug, dupilumab, fell short of investor expectations. The asthma opportunity could be more limited than prior expectations, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Yatin Suneja said, adding that he expects the drug to be used mainly for patients with...

We remain comfortable with its safety profile, "Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford wrote in a client note. "At the time of initial report, both events were considered by the investigator as having no reasonable possibility of being related to the study drug," AbbVie's spokeswoman Jillian Griffin told Reuters. Eli Lilly and Co's rival rheumatoid arthritis drug,...

Sept 11- AbbVie Inc said on Monday two patients died in a late-stage trial testing its rheumatoid arthritis drug, raising safety concerns about the drug. In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had declined to approve Eli Lilly and Co's rival drug, baricitinib, calling for an additional clinical study. Three months later, Lilly said the FDA was concerned...

Sept 11- AbbVie Inc said on Monday two patients died in a late-stage trial testing its drug to treat patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. The company said the reason for one of the deaths is unknown, while the second patient died due to heart failure and presumed pulmonary embolism, or blockage of arteries. AbbVie's shares were down about 1.2...

Sept 11- Medical device maker Medtronic Plc said on Monday it would recall certain infusion sets used with its insulin pumps by diabetes patients due to a component that could cause death in extreme cases. Infusion sets help connect an insulin pump device to the body. The Dublin- based company received reports of hypoglycemia requiring medical intervention,...

Sept 11- Medtronic Plc on Monday said that it would recall certain infusion sets used with all its insulin pumps due to a discontinued component.

MADRID, Sept 11- Cancer doctors are widening the net for immunotherapy, a hot new class of drugs that enlist the body's defences in the fight against tumours. The latest research shared with 23,000 experts at Europe's top oncology meeting shows how medicines that have already delivered durable benefits in metastatic disease can also work well at an earlier...

Sept 11- Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, a unit of Johnson& Johnson, said it would discontinue further development of its hepatitis C research, citing increased availability of a number of effective hepatitis C therapies. Janssen said it would not continue the development of the investigational hepatitis C treatment regimen JNJ-4178, a combination of three...

PARIS, Sept 11- Sanofi and Regeneron's biotech drug dupilumab scored a hit in treating severe asthma, clinical trial data showed on Monday, raising competition in an expected multibillion-dollar market. Sanofi and Regeneron plan to submit an application to use the medicine in severe asthma to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year.

ZURICH/ MADRID, Sept 11- Swiss drugmaker Novartis notched a trial win for its drug cocktail against skin cancer on Monday, while a rival treatment from Roche with slipping sales failed in a separate study with a similar patient group. Novartis's mix of Tafinlar and Mekinist slashed the risk of melanoma returning or death by 53 percent versus placebo in patients...