Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Appeals Court Ruling Could Shake Up Pharmaceutical Patent Protections
In a decision with broad implications for the pharmaceutical industry, a U.S. appeals court recently restricted wide-ranging patent claims for antibody treatments, a ruling legal experts say may force biologics makers to re-examine patent protections for their products. (Silverman, 2/25)
In other pharmaceutical industry news —
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the damage that an uncontrolled infectious disease can cause society. It’s something experts have been warning about for decades, yet society was unprepared. (Herper, 2/26)
An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug being developed by GlaxoSmithKline failed to show a significant benefit in hospitalized patients with Covid-19, the drug maker said Thursday. However, patients older than 70 were more likely to be free of respiratory failure, a result that GSK plans to test in a new cohort of the study. (Herper, 2/25)
File this under ‘Waste not, want not.’ In response to the cost of medicines, a fierce debate has broken out in recent years over ways to reduce the amount of unused liquids left in vials of infused or injectable cancer treatments and other therapies. One widely cited estimate suggested the U.S. health care system wasted $2.8 billion each year. (Silverman, 2/25)
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new medicine from Sarepta Therapeutics that treats certain patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The new drug, called Amondys 45, is Sarepta’s third marketed treatment for the rare, inherited muscle-wasting disease. (Feuerstein, 2/25)
