GLG News by Hematologists (US)

2 Texas U.S. Reps think that physcian owned hospitals are OK?

Co payments which had been $5/10/20 in the past are now a %age of the cost. When the cost may be upwards of $50-100K and you have a 20% co pay you can see the costs that are transfered back to the insured.

Genetech has an impressive inventory of block-buster drugs: Avastin, Rituximab,  and Herceptin,  whose sales have been increasing on a regular base. Hereceptin and Avastin will be getting more and more use with new indications and longer dosing schedules. However, given the sagging economy...

Affymax's Hematide is a long acting synthetic peptide that stimulates erythropoietin and acts as an ESA. Together with Takeda, the company sponsored a phase II trial that showed safety and efficacy in patients with chronic renal failure; phase 3 trials are underway. This drug amy overtake the currently...

So, now CTLA4 blockade, touted as the next big thing in melanoma, runs into the same thing as a host of other agents with promising phase II activity: failure at the phase III level.  Pfizer's randomized phase III of tremelimumab versus the fool's gold standard dacarabzine/DTIC was...

Has Avastin "hit the wall" as far as increased sales are concerned? Growth in the breast cancer market has not been as exuberant as expected.

Japan's biggest (by revenue) drug manufacturer has placed a bid For Millennium and it's primary product Velcade.

"Senicapoc, a novel Gardos channel inhibitor, limits solute and water loss, thereby preserving sickle red blood cell (RBC) hydration." This appears to decrease hemolysis and increase hemoglobin levels.

An indian product similar to Amgen's Filgastrim " G-CSF" showed comparable efficacy and safety in a trial in Europe and is expected to get EMEA approval in 2010.  " Neukine" is already in use in India and in several "developing countries" in the MiddlE Esat and Asia where it is available at less...

Antigenics' Oncophage is a form of immunotherapy for patients with intermediate risk renal cancer that showed efficacy in improving recurrence free survival in a randomized trial . The approval in Russia, may be due in addition to the obvious reason of less regulatory restrictions, is that the company...