Italy has so far borne the brunt of Europe’s growing coronavirus outbreak. Now it is offering patients the chance to access unauthorized medicines as part of efforts to stem the outbreak.
The Italian medicines agency, AIFA, has set up a COVID-19 “crisis unit” to oversee the provision of certain medicines for use against the outbreak, either in clinical trials or as off-label use, including Gilead Sciences Inc.’s investigational antiviral, remdesivir, and AbbVie Inc.’s antiviral combination product, Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir).
Efforts are also under way to give patients access to other potential therapies such as Roche’s anti-inflammatory antibody Actemra...
Casgevy, the world’s first CRISPR gene editing therapy, is the second drug to be accepted onto a managed access scheme via England’s Innovative Medicines Fund, offering a new treatment for patients with transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.
Scotland’s health technology assessment body has agreed to reimburse Chiesi’s Elfabrio for Fabry disease, mirroring the decision from several other European countries – however, France turned down the rare disease drug, while Germany questioned its benefit.
Did Samsung Bioepis and Biogen choose early US access for their Lucentis biosimilar in exchange for postponing launch in other markets? That’s what Italy’s competition authority believes, as it investigates the biosimilar sponsors and originator companies Genentech and Novartis.
J&J says it has “exhausted all current viable avenues” to get its antidepressant nasal spray Spravato reimbursed on England’s National Health Service, after NICE decided against re-appraising the drug following numerous funding rejections.
<p>Executive Summary</p> <p>A list of EU biosimilar filings, CHMP opinions and EU marketing authorizations, including details of the biosimilar company, the brand name/INN, indication(s), the reference product/company, and the date and type of event.</p>
Companies dealing with commercial costings or contracts with the National Health Service for early phase clinical trials or trials of advanced therapy medicinal products should soon be able to conclude their negotiations more quickly.
As the planet heats up and sea levels rise, the need to reduce carbon emissions is becoming ever more urgent. The life sciences industry is just one of many that are looking to cut the carbon it produces.
