Good afternoon, I’m Selina McKee and here are today’s news headlines on Monday 11th December.
Solvay unit Fournier Laboratories Ireland has withdrawn its marketing application for the diabetes drug and lipid lowerer Synordia which, if approved, would have been the first such combination on the market.
Reasons for withdrawing the application, submitted in July last year, are still somewhat hazy but, according to the European Medicines Agency, the company says it “is not able to respond to the request for additional information within the allowed timeframe.” Whatever the reason, it will likely be a major blow to the firm.
In other news, Roche has unveiled long-term data showing that its antibody drug MabThera, when given as a first-line therapy, prolongs survival in patients with advanced follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The Phase III study of 321 patients revealed that MabThera, in combination with conventional chemotherapy, increased overall survival at four years, with 81% patients still alive compared with only 71% on chemotherapy alone.
That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for more industry headlines.
