Drug Delivery Technology

Philip Morris described a scenario of being essentially blacklisted by the health care sector and its CDMO partners as it threw in the towel on its £1.1bn acquisition of UK inhalation specialist Vectura. It agreed to offload the firm at a fraction of the initial cost.

Philip Morris described a scenario of being essentially blacklisted by the health care sector and its CDMO partners as it threw in the towel on its £1.1bn acquisition of UK inhalation specialist Vectura. It agreed to offload the firm at a fraction of the initial cost.

Halozyme’s Enhanze technology has now brought seven monoclonal antibodies, including Ocrevus and Tecentriq, from IV to subcutaneous delivery, but Alteogen and other high-concentration formulation players hope to join the party as Medicare pricing issues help drive interest.

A subcutaneous formulation of Roche’s best-selling drug will offer an alternative to a lengthy intravenous infusion. Both versions will be priced the same.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: summer ADC dealmaking continues apace; a look at cell therapies in Japan; Pfizer’s new US digital consumer platform; Galapagos’s US point of care CAR-T study; and Novartis partners with Lindy on biologics delivery.

Novartis is paying Lindy potentially more than $900m to use its technology for making intravenous biologics available for subcutaneous injection using autoinjectors.

ARS will compete directly with EpiPen and other injectable products with inhaled neffy as the first needle-free epinephrine therapy for severe allergy attacks. EU approval is thought imminent.

Principal deputy commissioner Bumpus agrees with advisory committee findings that safety issues with ITCA 650 preclude approval, regardless of comparisons to other diabetes treatments. Final order caps a nearly eight-year regulatory saga that has grown increasingly rancorous.

ARS will compete directly with EpiPen and other injectable products with inhaled neffy as the first needle-free epinephrine therapy for severe allergy attacks. EU approval is thought imminent.

The US Federal Trade Commission wants to clean up the FDA’s Orange Book by purging medical device patents that the commission says should not be in the listing. The FTC argues improper patents in the Orange Book block lower-cost generic equivalents from coming to market. Medtech Insight spoke to attorney Sara Koblitz about the FTC’s delisting push.