Helsinn Group grants exclusive licensing rights to Blanver and Varifarma for its leading drug Pracinostat in South America.

Helsinn is a Swiss biopharmaceutical company committed to producing the best solutions aimed at improving the quality of life for people with cancer.

Under the terms of the agreements, São Paulo-based Blanver will have the rights to register, promote, distribute and commercialize Pracinostat in Brazil, on the other hand Varifarma, located in Buenos Aires, will have the rights for the same but in different geography namely Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. However, Helsinn will retain all international development rights, including clinical development activities, and the supply of Pracinostat.

Pracinostat is a pan histone deacetylase inhibitor. The drug is at present in Phase III clinical trials in combination with Azacitidine for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) treatment and has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the US FDA. The drug is also being tested for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) in combination with Azacitidine.

At present, there are many potential candidates in the development phase for the Acute Myeloid Leukemia treatment, as estimated by DelveInsight. Various pharma companies such as Actinium Pharmaceuticals, AVEO Oncology, Biodesix, Daiichi Sankyo, BioSight, Helsinn Healthcare, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, and others are developing effective therapies, are contributing to the AML market size. Drugs such as Iomab-B CD45 and Actimab-A CD33 (Actinium Pharmaceuticals), Ficlatuzumab (AVEO Oncology and Biodesix), BST-236 (BioSight), Quizartinib (Daiichi Sankyo), Pracinostat (Helsinn Healthcare), Guadecitabine (SGI-110) (Otsuka Pharmaceutical), and others are being developed as the highly effective therapies.

According to DelveInsight analysts, the main goal of available
Myelodysplastic Syndromes therapies (MDS) treatment is to relieve symptoms and avoid complications and side effects. Various companies such as Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Onconova Therapeutics, Celgene, Acceleron Pharma, Geron Corporation, and others are involved in developing effective therapies and further progress in the research and the development is likely to translate into a real improvement in the treatment options for MDS. Drugs such as DSP-7888 (Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma), Rigosertib (Onconova Therapeutics), Luspatercept (Celgene/ Acceleron Pharma), Imetelstat (Geron Corporation), and others are being developed as the highly effective Myelodysplastic Syndromes therapies.

Novartis has recently announced the results of clinical trials for its heart failure drug Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan).

Currently, Entresto is recommended for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction treatment, which is stereotypically defined as an ejection fraction of less than 40%.

The HFrEF drug Entresto has further proved to be efficiently improving the levels of NT-proBNP, which is associated with good clinical outcomes in HFrEF in two Phase IV trials, PROVE-HF and EVALUATE-HF. The trial results were crucial as it showed that the use of Entresto can reverse the damage done to the heart. This was linked with noteworthy enhancement in left ventricular remodelling and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function.

These results were announced at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris and the two studies were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Heart failure (HF) is a growing problem in the world, especially in the USA. HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) each make up approximately half of the overall HF burden, as surveyed by NCBI. Moreover, HFpEF patient pool has limited therapeutic options, because of unavailability of standard therapy for the condition. However, increasing HFpEF prevalence, rising awareness, several pharma companies are developing anew pipeline to improve the patient experience.

ALK, a global pharma company advancing pipeline in allergy immunotherapy, has launched its sublingual allergy immunotherapy (SLIT) tablet for the first time.

ALK is a global, research-driven pharmaceutical company that focuses on allergy prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

The SLIT tablet approved for treating tree pollen allergy. The drug ITULAZAX has been launched in Germany first, following the different European countries. ITULAZAX is a convenient, once-daily SLIT-tablet, and can be used conveniently at home. Approved in Europe for moderate-to-severe allergic rhinitis and/or conjunctivitis induced by pollen from the birch-homologous family of trees – birch, alder, beech, hazel, hornbeam and oak – and whose symptoms cannot be managed with symptom-relieving medication.

Current Allergic rhinitis treatment includes intranasal glucocorticoids, oral and nasal antihistamines, leukotriene-receptor antagonists, and, when pharmacotherapy is not effective or produces unacceptable side effects, allergen immunotherapy. The Allergic rhinitis therapeutics market is poised to gain acceleration due to emerging drugs, estimates DelveInsight.