After producing vaccines and treatments for acute COVID-19 in record time, researchers and drugmakers are turning to finding a cure for long COVID, a more elusive target marked by hundreds of different symptoms afflicting millions of people.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has left drugmakers scrambling to find ways for patients enrolled in clinical trials there to receive their medicines as millions seek shelter from bombardment and flee to neighboring countries.
Pharmaceutical giant Roche and subsidiary Genentech announced a new Phase III clinical trial for gantenerumab, a monoclonal anti-amyloid antibody that is designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Lilly and Roche expressed their criticism of the draft guidance from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm (aducanumab).
The World Health Organization added its first monoclonal antibody, tocilizumab, to the WHO’s so-called pre-qualification list of medicines used as a benchmark for procurement by developing countries.
Roche said ongoing trials of the company’s Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate gantenerumab are designed to provide unequivocal results on efficacy as controversy continues in the United States over the benefits of a rival’s approved drug.
Biogen is backing Genentech on developing a bispecific antibody aimed at B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company exercised an option to participate in Roche Group member Genentech’s development of mosunetuzumab under a long-standing collaboration for antibodies targeting CD20.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech’s Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) for the treatment of wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME).
Ionis Pharmaceuticals announced that Roche, the company’s partner firm, is designing a new Phase II trial that would assess the effectiveness of tominersen in younger adult patients diagnosed with Huntington’s disease.
The U.S. government’s Medicare program on January 11 said it plans to cover Alzheimer’s treatments including Biogen Inc.’s Aduhelm, with some conditions.
