Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: FDA approves Sanofi and Novo diabetes drugs

Hello, everyone, and how are you today? We are just fine, thank you. Another chilly and windy day has arrived here at the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are sprawled across the office furniture. As for us, we are going about our usual business, brewing cups of stimulation in the coffee kettle and foraging for interesting items. Speaking of which, here are some tidbits. Hope you have a wonderful day …

Sanofi and Novo Nordisk both won US regulatory approval to sell new combination drugs to treat diabetes, Reuters notes. Novo’s Xultophy and Sanofi’s Soliqua both combine a long-lasting insulin with a so-called GLP-1 medicine that stimulates insulin production in the pancreas. Both drugs will be sold at discounts to the combined price of the individual components in hopes of boosting sales as insulin prices are under intense pressure in the key US market.

A key issue in a coroner’s inquest being heard in Australia is why risks associated with Pfizer’s Chantix smoking cessation pill do not appear in the packaging, the Courier Mail reports. During the proceeding, which stems from concerns the pill caused a 22-year-old man to commit suicide, a Pfizer representative noted that the risk information is available online, so it can be updated.

A US appeals court upheld AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy Laboratories’s victory in a lawsuit accusing them of reaching an illegal deal to delay the launch of a generic version of the Nexium heartburn drug. A jury agreed the deal was large, unjustified, and unreasonably anticompetitive. But even without the deal, the jury also decided AstraZeneca would not have allowed Ranbaxy to sell a generic Nexium before the May 2014 patent expiration date.

The Food and Drug Administration lifted a hold on two AstraZeneca trials that were testing an immunotherapy in head and neck cancer, but had been stopped last month after cases of bleeding were reported in some patients, PMLive tells us. Hemorrhaging is not uncommon in patients with head and neck cancers, in part because of the proximity of these tumors to major blood vessels.

The FDA cleared Aduro Biotech to recruit patients for trials of its listeria-based immunotherapies after modifying protocols to reduce the risk of subjects developing listeriosis, InPharma Technologist says.

Aphena Pharma Solutions, which packages pharmaceuticals, is eliminating 70 jobs from its Whippany, N.J., facility, according to a state notice.

This post was updated to note that a proceeding in Australia concerning warnings for the Chantix stop-smoking pill is a coroner’s inquest.