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November 03, 2017

Welcome to FierceLifeSci Weekly Digest, your roundup of the biggest and most popular stories from each of our publications.

Featured Story

AbbVie’s risankizumab blows away aging rivals in phase 3

AbbVie has posted positive phase 3 psoriasis data on potential blockbuster risankizumab. The IL-23 antibody easily outperformed Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara and AbbVie’s own Humira, setting it up to go before regulators next year.

Top Stories Of The Week

Gilead signals major hepatitis C trouble ahead with sales guidance tweak

Gilead’s doing its best to move away from hepatitis C. But as usual, that topic dominated the discussion on its third-quarter earnings call—and it wasn’t a positive discussion.

Double disappointment for AstraZeneca lung drug tralokinumab

After a failed trial in May, AstraZeneca hoped tralokinumab could pass subpopulation tests and make it to the finish line, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Cost cuts are coming for Allergan, CEO says. But a breakup isn’t

Heading into Allergan’s third-quarter conference call, executives knew investors were skittish about the prospect of Restasis generics. So they spelled out their solution loud and clear: Cost cuts are coming, and “rapidly.”

Problems at Hospira plants dog Pfizer and some of its clients

When Pfizer was preparing to shell out $15 billion for regulatory-challenged Hospira, executives assured investors and regulators that they had the skills to quickly resolve issues at the plants of the sterile injectables specialist. But it has turned out to be a harder job than they anticipated, taking a toll on Pfizer’s earnings and creating serious problems for some of its clients along the way.

Opioid alternative mimics cannabis, relieves pain without dependency

As public health officials work to address the opioid crisis, scientists are laboring to develop alternatives that can relieve pain without causing dependency and other adverse side effects. This week a team at Indiana University reported promising results in mice for a novel compound that works by enhancing the brain’s natural ability to produce painkillers.

Hack forces Merck to borrow Gardasil doses from CDC stockpile, slamming Q3 sales

Working to recover from a damaging cyberattack, Merck reported that its star HPV vaccine missed sales expectations in the third quarter as it had to borrow from the CDC's stockpile to fulfill orders.

Butterfly Network’s smartphone plug-in ultrasound wins FDA nod

Butterfly Network’s ultrasound-on-a-chip technology snagged the FDA nod for 13 applications, the broadest clearance to date for an ultrasound transducer. The pocket-sized transducer, which plugs into an iPhone, would expand the availability of diagnostic ultrasound imaging.

Bristol-Myers Squibb could double patient numbers for Opdivo in kidney cancer

Now that Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo has safely posted growth in 2017, all eyes are on what the drug can pull off next year. Its move into a larger kidney cancer market will be central to that equation.

PPD wins 7-year HIV research contract

Major CRO player Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has won a lucrative seven-year government contract in infectious disease.

Enrollment Showcase

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Drexel University’s online graduate programs in biomedicine, clinical research, drug discovery, and molecular medicine were developed with working professionals in mind, providing you with the education, practical skills, and competitive edge you need to be successful in your career. Learn more.

Resources

[Whitepaper] Meeting the Challenge of Appropriate Safety Report Distribution

As clinical trials become more complex, safety document distribution to investigative sites has reached the point that demands a solution.

[Whitepaper] Institutionalizing Real-World Evidence

In the quest to understand how a therapeutic intervention performs in actual use – in real medical practice outside the controlled environment of clinical trials – many life sciences organizations are stymied. Download now to read more.

[Webinar] Tips to escape the Vacancy Trap and avoid it entirely

December 5, 2017 | 2pm EST / 11am PST: Join this webinar to discover tested and proven solutions to manage vacancies. Presented by Tyler Cowan, VP, Client Solutions, Ashfield US, you’ll learn how to maintain and build momentum in field sales despite turnover.

[Whitepaper] Veeva 2017 Annual CRO Report: CROs lead the drive to a unified clinical model

CROs are leading an industry wide shift to modernize clinical systems and clinical trial processes.

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