Tag Archive for: Merck & Co.

The attorney general for one of the most populous U.S. states this week urged federal drug regulators to address safety risks associated with the widely used asthma and allergy medicine Singulair, saying current warnings on the drug’s packaging are insufficient, particularly for children.

The CEOs of Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Merck testified Thursday before the Senate health committee, defending the high U.S. prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs compared to other countries based on patient value and the need to fund innovation and R&D costs.  

A combination of Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda and an mRNA vaccine from Moderna has demonstrated positive results at the three-year stage in a Phase IIb study of patients with resected high-risk melanoma following complete resection.

The U.S. government will stop distributing free doses of Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment molnupiravir by the middle of next month and expects it to be sold on the commercial market instead.

The U.S. government’s Medicare health insurance program can begin negotiating prices for some prescription drugs this fall under a new program, a federal judge ruled on Friday, vindicating one of President Joe Biden’s signature initiatives.

Novartis on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services, joining a growing list of industry heavy-hitters seeking to block the Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Program.

The Biden administration on Tuesday released its list of 10 prescription medicines that will be subject to the first-ever price negotiations by the U.S. Medicare health program that covers 66 million people, with big-selling blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer among them.

AstraZeneca said on Friday it has sued the U.S. government to block parts of a program that gives the Medicare health insurance plan the power to negotiate lower drug prices.

Merck & Co. and partner Eisai said on Friday they will shut down a late-stage study testing an experimental combination therapy for a type of head and neck cancer after an interim analysis showed it failed to prolong lives of patients.

Roche inadvertently published positive lung cancer drug trial data from an interim analysis, boosting the Swiss drug maker’s shares even though more data will be needed to confirm the treatment’s efficacy.