As part of its implementation of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the FDA issued a proposed rule (available at www.federalregister.gov) that would extend its authority to regulate additional tobacco products including electronic cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, nicotine gels, waterpipe (or hookah) tobacco, and dissolvables. The FDA currently regulates cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco.
Novartis announced that it will acquire GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) oncology products for as much as $16.1 billion and send its vaccines business (excluding flu vaccines) to GSK for $7.1 billion plus royalties. GSK oncology drugs include the BRAF inhibitor Tafinlar (dabrafenib) and the MEK inhibitor Mekinist (trametinib), both for metastatic melanoma, and the VEGFR inhibitor Votrient (pazopanib) for renal cell carcinoma. The two companies also agreed to combine their consumer divisions to create a world-leading consumer healthcare business.
Indianapolis, IN–based Eli Lilly received FDA approval to market Cyramza (ramucirumab) as a single-agent treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with disease progression. Approval was based on results of the REGARD trial, which showed significant improvements in median overall and progression-free survival.
The agent IMCgp100, a new type of immunotherapy, was well tolerated and showed efficacy in some patients with advanced melanoma in a phase I clinical trial, according to data reported on April 8 at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. IMCgp100 attaches to cancer cells, activates any adjacent T cells to kill the cancer cells, and recruits other immune cells to help clear the disease.
“Overweight and obesity are contributing just about as many excess cancers now in the United States as is current smoking,” commented Walter Willett, MD, MPH, DrPH, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA, during a plenary presentation at the AACR meeting on April 6.
For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://CDnews.aacrjournals.org.