Orphan Drug

The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 was created to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for so-called rare or ultra-rare diseases. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines rare diseases as afflicting as fewer than 200,000 individuals. Generally speaking, it has worked. Many companies are willing to inv...

With patent loss looming, Takeda knocks proposed Velcade copycats in FDA petition Takeda’s multiple myeloma blockbuster Velcade is quickly running out of patent protection, but the drug maker has filed a citizen petition it hopes can stave off competition for a little while longer. The Japanese pharma giant asked th...

Sanofi pays €120M to buy into AstraZeneca RSV program Sanofi has paid €120 million ($126 million) upfront and committed to up to €495 million more for a stake in AstraZeneca’s experimental monoclonal antibody against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The agreement will see Sanofi and AstraZeneca equally share costs...

GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK based company, believes in growing its own cannabis plants, search for its ingredients and then come up with medicines that help the company in taking one more step towards approval of Epidiolex, as seen in the announcement of positive phase 3 trial results earlier this week. The drug is fo...

Immune checkpoint activators are small molecules responsible for maintenance, modulation and regulation of immune responses. Its significance in Immuno therapeutics is backed by its functionality to activate the immune checkpoint proteins that are down regulated by tumors, leading to the activation of the immune sys...