The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AbbVie’s Rinvoq (upadacitinib) for adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to one or more tumor necrosis factor blockers. 

AbbVie’s Rinvoq won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis who have had an inadequate response or demonstrated an intolerance to one or more tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers.

Blocking TNF production could offer a more effective solution for the treatment of COVID-19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Janssen’s Simponi Aria (golimumab) for patients 2 years of age and older for the treatment of active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) and extended the medicine’s active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) indication for this same patient population.

Oxford University will study whether the world’s best-selling prescription medicine adalimumab was an effective treatment for Covid-19 patients in the latest effort to repurpose existing drugs as potential coronavirus therapies.

Harbour BioMed closed a $102 million Series C funding round that will be used to advance the company’s oncology and immunology portfolio.

On Valentine’s Day, BioSpace would be remiss not to mention, er, matters of the heart. There are reportedly 59 life sciences companies or organizations worldwide that focus on the cardiovascular system, ranging from the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute based in West Henrietta, New York to XyloCor Therapeutics, with headquarters in Philadelphia. That number is probably low.