Teva Pharmaceutical said it acquired Gecko Health Innovations, which markets software and tools that help patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease improve adherence and compliance to their medications. The company makes a sensor-based inhaler that uses remote monitoring and real-time adherence tools to connect patients and caregivers.
European regulators gave Amgen’s cancer drug, Blincyto, a conditional approval, according to Reuters. The conditional-approval status allows the drug to be used because there are few or no other treatment options available but the company is required to submit complete data to fully approve the therapy. The FDA approved Blincyto in December.
Closing out a week of drug-pricing headlines, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez told The Washington Post that targeted therapies may help remove wasted spending in the US even if the price of individual medicines is higher.
A physician described off-label prescriptions of the newly approved PCSK9 inhibitors as premature and said more data is needed about how the drugs perform in real-world settings. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted a panel discussion on Thursday about the new cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Alexion sued the Canadian government over an attempt to lower the price of Soliris, a rare-blood-disease treatment that costs about $700,000 for a course of treatment there, according to CBC Radio-Canada. The drugmaker said the country’s price watchdog does not have the authority to make the company lower the price of the drug.
