Rise and shine, everyone, another busy day is on the way. Most every day is busy, though, is it not? Well, no matter. Busy is good, as they say. After all, consider the alternatives. While you ponder, please join us for our ritual cup of stimulation, which is a much-needed boost this morning, thanks to a growing to-do list of meetings and phone calls and deadlines – oh my! Meanwhile, we have gathered a few items of interest to help you along. Hopefully, this will be equally stimulating. Hope you conquer the world and stay in touch …
The Food and Drug Administration placed a partial hold on five Celgene (CELG) clinical trials and a full hold on another involving a PD-L1 immunotherapy after seeing risks in similar studies involving Merck’s Keytruda, MarketWatch reports. On Wednesday, the agency placed a partial hold on three clinical trials testing Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMY) Opdivo immunotherapy in combination with other medicines for multiple myeloma, Pharmaphorum notes.
A new kind of injectable biotech treatment for severe asthma from AstraZeneca (AZN) and Amgen (AMGN) promises to help a much broader range of patients than existing medicines, Reuters tells us. Findings from a mid-stage clinical trial involving 584 patients showed the experimental drug, called tezepelumab, reduced the annual rate of serious asthma attacks, known as exacerbations, by between 61 and 71 percent, depending on the dose.
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