Novartis International AG: Novartis delivered sales growth and margin expansion. Continued to progress its next wave of medicines in 2020.
Pharmaceuticals BU grew 5% (cc) driven by
Entresto (+44% cc),
Cosentyx (+13% cc),
Xiidra acquisition (+95% cc)
Promacta/Revolade (+23% cc),
Piqray (reaching USD 0.3 billion)
Sandoz sales were in line (cc, -1% USD), with Biopharmaceuticals growing 19% (cc)
COVID-19 negatively impacted demand, particularly: ophthalmology, dermatology and Sandoz retail
Core operating income² grew 13% (cc, +9% USD) and Innovative Medicines and Sandoz core margin improved to 35% and 24% of sales respectively, driven by sales growth, lower spend and productivity
Continued transformation of Manufacturing and Business Services contributing to core margin expansion
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NEWARK, Calif., Jan. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Teneobio, Inc. and its affiliate TeneoThree, Inc. announced today that their investigational new drug application (IND) for TNB-585, a bispecific T-cell engaging antibody for the treatment of metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) was cleared for the initiation of Phase I clinical studies by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 23, 2021.
Therapeutic options for mCRPC are limited, and those that are available improve survival for only up to five months. Recent clinical efforts leveraging T-cell redirection via Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells and bispecific antibodies are promising, albeit complicated by frequent and occasionally severe cytokine release syndrome in treated patients. Teneobio has developed a unique anti-CD3 redirection platform that enables potent killing of cancer cells with minimal cytokine release.
Free newborn screening for sickle cell disease has been launched at the 37 Military and the Greater Accra Regional (Ridge) Hospitals.
The screening is an initiative of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana (SCFG) being implemented in collaboration with the American Society of Haematology (ASH).
It will be funded from the Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa for Sickle Cell Disease of ASH.
It is aimed at screening more than 10,000 babies at the facilities annually to improve the health outcomes for infants with sickle cell.
The move also forms part of efforts to expand the National Newborn Screening Programme for Sickle Cell Disease (NNSPSCD), which is ensuring that persons diagnosed with the disease received appropriate health care, including counselling and clinical treatment.
Following is a transcript of their remarks:
Vinay Prasad, MD: I m back with Aaron Goodman and Al-Ola Abdallah, and we re talking about ASH abstracts. Gentlemen, the myeloma field is excited about CAR-T or cellular therapy and they are going after all sorts of targets. Of course, they start with BCMA [B-cell maturation antigen], but they ve expanded from there, and CAR-T therapies are incredibly exciting.
Those of us who ve used them in lymphoma, who have seen the ability to take a chemo-resistant patient and render them free of disease, folks who have used them in pediatric ALL [acute lymphocytic leukemia] have seen the impressive powers of CAR-T. It is not an easy therapy to administer. Often side effects are profound, including neurotoxicity.
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Personalized vaccine produces long-lasting anti-tumor response in patients with melanoma, study shows
Four years after patients with melanoma were treated with a personalized cancer vaccine, the immune response kindled by the vaccine remains robust and effective in keeping cancer cells under control, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard report in a new study.
The findings, published online today by the journal Nature Medicine, demonstrate the staying power of the immune response generated by the vaccine, known as NeoVax, which works by targeting specific proteins on each patient’s tumor cells. The researchers found that, nearly four years after vaccination, the patients’ immune system cells were active not only against tumor cells with those distinctive proteins, but also spread to other proteins found in those patients’ tumor cells.