Melanie Sena is community editor of Pharmaceutical Technology.

Melanie Sena

To help increase support for people living with metastatic breast cancer and their caregivers, 

 and the Avon Foundation for Women have partnered to establish the Avon-Pfizer Metastatic Breast Cancer Grants Program.The partnership will award up to $1 million in grants to advocacy, academic, and other not-for-profit organizations who serve the metastatic breast cancer community. The program will support initiatives to provide information and services that help people with metastatic breast cancer navigate the medical and emotional challenges associated with their disease.

A survey commissioned by Pfizer found that more than 60% of respondents say they know little to nothing about metastatic breast cancer, which occurs when cancer spreads beyond the breast to other parts of the body, including the bones, lungs, liver and brain. The survey was the first to examine the general public’s understanding of metastatic breast cancer, which affects up to 250,000 women and men in the US. The survey results reveal a range of misperceptions about the causes, treatments, and outcomes related to metastatic breast cancer. 

The Metastatic Breast Cancer Grants Program is designed to address many of the misperceptions found in the survey including 72% of respondents believe that breast cancer in the advanced stages is curable if diagnosed early and 50% of respondents believe that people with breast cancer experience disease progression because they did not take the right medicines or preventative measures.

Articles

Pfizer and the Avon Foundation for Women Breast Cancer Grants Program will award up to $1 million in grants to advocacy, academic, and other not-for-profit organizations.

Pfizer and Avon Announce Metastatic Breast Cancer Program

The Philippines pharmaceutical market value will increase from $4.3 billion in 2013 to $8 billion by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%, according to research from 

, a research and consulting firm. According to the company’s latest report, the Philippines have the third largest pharma market among the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, just after Indonesia and Thailand.

“Although an increasing disease burden, coupled with prevailing high pharmaceutical prices, are providing the necessary investment incentives for the healthcare market in the Philippines, limited access to healthcare facilities and governmental cuts could yet impede further growth in the future,” said Joshua Owide, GlobalData’s director of healthcare industry dynamics.

Furthermore, public health insurance provider Philippine Health Insurance Corporation does not cover the country’s entire population, resulting in the majority of people being unable to afford medicines. Additionally, high spending to overcome basic economic concerns, such as poverty, dependence on imports and high external debt, have left the Philippines government with insufficient funds to finance the development of healthcare infrastructure, according to GlobalData.

The Philippines pharmaceutical market value is expected to increase from approximately $4.3 billion in 2013 to $8 billion by 2020.

Philippines Pharmaceutical Market Value to Reach $8 Billion by 2020

 reported that it would freeze the prices of its vaccines for five years for developing countries that graduate from GAVI Alliance. By committing to offer GAVI Alliance prices for vaccines against pneumococcal disease, rotavirus and cervical cancer, GSK will support developing country governments as they transition to financing the full cost of their local vaccination programs. 

Since its formation in 2000, the GAVI Alliance has helped to fund the immunization of 440 million children in some of the world’s poorest countries. GSK is a long-standing partner of the Alliance and reserves its lowest prices for GAVI-eligible countries, which can be as low as one-tenth of prices in developed countries.

“By 2020, 22 countries with growing economies will graduate from GAVI support. This process allows GAVI to focus resources on the poorest countries, while enabling governments to take increasing responsibility and ownership for vaccination programs over time,” said Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK.

GSK has committed to provide more than 850 million vaccine doses that will help protect up to 300 million children and young girls in the developing world by 2024.

GSK reports 5-year vaccine price freeze for countries graduating from GAVI Alliance.

GSK Announces Vaccine Price Freeze in Support of GAVI Alliance

, in partnership with other federal and international agencies, took action against websites that sell potentially dangerous, unapproved prescription drugs to US consumers. FDA and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also conducted examinations at US-based international mail facilities, where many packages containing prescription drugs enter the US, and found that most of the examined packages contained illegal prescription drugs that had been ordered from online sources. 

These actions took place in support of the 7th annual International Internet Week of Action (IIWA) sponsored by Interpol, and also known as Operation Pangea VII. During Operation Pangea VII, law enforcement, customs, and regulatory authorities from 111 countries collaborated to identify the makers and distributors of illegal drug products and medical devices that used the Internet to sell their products and remove these products from the supply chain.

Operation Pangea VII‘s coordinated efforts at mail facilities resulted in the detention or seizure of 19,618 packages containing medicines purportedly from Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and Canada. These packages contained unapproved or suspected counterfeit drugs from other countries, such as India, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Mexico, Laos, Malaysia, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

The FDA and the CBP inspected packages at the mail facilities in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, and detained or seized 583 packages. Preliminary findings show that certain drug products from abroad, such as insulin, estrogen, bimatoprost, human chorionic gonadotropin, tramadol, tadalafil, and sildenafil citrate were on their way to US consumers. The FDA also notified Internet service providers, domain name registrars, and related organizations that 1975 websites were selling products in violation of US Law.

FDA targets illegal online pharmacies that sell unapproved prescription drugs to US consumers.

FDA Targets Illegal Online Pharmacies

America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 119 new medicines to help improve the lives of the estimated 61.5 million Americans that are affected by mental health disorders, according to a new report by the 

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

These medicines in development, all either in clinical trials or under review by FDA, include 36 for schizophrenia, 29 for depression, 20 for substance/addictive disorders, 15 for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and 15 for anxiety disorders.

The new report outlines the numerous approaches being pursed to treat many of these disorders. Some examples include a medicine that may provide a broader spectrum of therapeutic activity for ADHD, an intranasal medicine for treatment-resistant depression that may offer a rapid onset of therapeutic effects, and a medicine for schizophrenia that potentially could result in fewer negative side effects than existing treatments.

PhRMA announces 119 new medicines are in development to treat mental and addictive disorders.

More Than 100 New Medicines in Development to Treat Mental Health Disorders

, a monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company, has raised $40 million in a Series B financing. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joins existing investor, the Wellcome Trust, each investing $20 million.

The funds will enable Kymab to increase the potential of its kymouse platform and advance its pipeline of therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies in areas of unmet medical need. Kymab will also collaborate with the Gates Foundation and its partners on vaccine antigen discovery R&D with a focus on malaria and HIV. Recent data published in Nature Biotechnology demonstrates that the kymouse technology yields an antibody library constituted from 100 trillion different antibodies, in which rare high-quality antibodies can be selected and developed into therapeutics. 

In addition, Kymab will pursue a limited number of collaborations to identify and develop therapeutic antibodies in a range of diseases. Kymab has also developed Kymab Access, a program that enables academic researchers to pursue the discovery and development of novel human monoclonal antibody therapeutics and vaccines by partnering with Kymab and its kymouse antibody technology.

Kymab receives $40 million investment for clinical development of antibody therapeutics.