May 2022 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 9
// COLLABORATION //
Ampersand Health and UCB partner in ‘joint’ arthritis initiative
Ampersand Health and UCB have announced a partnership to help patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA) – a form of inflammatory arthritis that mainly affects the joints of the spine.
The two companies will be supporting Project Nightingale, an ongoing study run by the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) in Bath. The project is designed to assist axSpA patients in managing their symptoms and improving quality of life.
Healthcare professionals will be able to use the information gathered to support patients to predict flares, track regular exercise programmes and improve sleep.
One patient, Peter Stanley, 68, joined the pilot study to help him understand his symptoms. “I wasn’t very good with technology at the beginning, but it was surprisingly easy to update information, such as sleep patterns, on my smartphone. Participating in Project Nightingale has helped me understand some of my most problematic symptoms as well as acting as a useful record for when seeing my rheumatologist.”
Nader Alaghband, founder and CEO of Ampersand Health, explained: “The collaboration with UCB and the RNHRD will capture subtle, potentially critical changes in disease activity that are not currently considered in clinical practice to help predict flare-ups, while supporting patients to self-manage and recognise patterns by tracking lifestyle factors such as exercise and sleep.”
Engetix and Takeda announce anti-fibrotic partnership
Engitix has entered an agreement with Takeda to expand their existing collaboration. The link-up will now include the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for fibrostenotic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The companies will collaborate in the confirmation of targets for IBD therapeutics and in the preclinical development of its therapeutics. Takeda will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialise certain clinical candidates generated against validated targets arising from the collaboration.
It will also utilise Engitix’s unique extracellular matrix (ECM) discovery platform.
Dr Giuseppe Mazza, co-founder and CEO of Engitix, commented: “ECM remodelling plays a key role in driving IBD pathogenesis forward and targeting this process in a specific and fine-tuned manner may contribute to the treatment of IBD by preventing both propagated inflammation, fibrosis and stricturing disease.”
The discovery platform will enable the companies to understand the role of the human extracellular matrix in controlling disease progression in both fibrosis and solid tumours, Dr Mazza also shared.
Fibrostenosis refers to intestinal inflammation-driven obstruction and is most commonly seen in the Crohn’s disease category of IBD. There is no cure for IBD and it has a high rate of primary and secondary treatment failure in current therapies.
HOT & NOT
NICE has recommended AstraZeneca and MSD’s Koselugo (selumetinib) for use by the NHS in England. The treatment is indicated for treating symptomatic and inoperable plexiform neurofibromas (PN) associated with type 1 neurofibromatosis (NF1) in children aged three and over.
NF1 is a debilitating genetic condition, which affects one in 4,000 individuals worldwide. The condition can cause several clinical issues, such as disfigurement, motor dysfunction, airway dysfunction, visual impairment and bladder or bowel dysfunction.
NICE has also recommended Tepmetko (tepotinib) for the treatment of adult patients in the UK with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Tepotinib is the first and only oral MET inhibitor to be recommended for the treatment of adult patients with advanced NSCLC harbouring METex14 skipping alterations for use on the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Interim funding via the Cancer Drugs Fund will enable reimbursement of tepotinib in England until NICE final guidance is published.
European medical cannabis company Cantourage has received two British government licences that authorise the company to import medical cannabis to the UK.
The company has received the required regulatory registration to prescribe medical cannabis products to clients via a new facility. The centre has duly been named Cantourage Clinic and the company has received regulatory registration for a private tele-healthcare clinic specialising in medical cannabis.
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the Association of Optometrists have joined The Eyes Have It partnership – a leading coalition of national organisations campaigning to improve the lives of patients with deteriorating eye conditions.
The coalition aims to raise awareness of the importance of eye health, as well as issues such as delayed referrals, service capacity, a shortage of clinical specialists and the emotional impact of delays to treatment.
There have been more than 100 healthcare-related attacks in Ukraine – verified by WHO – since the start of the war on 24 February. These bombardments have so far have claimed 73 lives and injured 51.
Of the current total of 103 attacks, 89 have impacted health facilities and 13 have been targeted at transport, including ambulances.
Attacks on health, according to WHO, are seen commonly amid conflicts globally.
New research published in Reproductive Biomedicine has found that the impacts of infertility are both diverse and profound. 60% of people believe that that diagnosis and treatment of infertility has impacted their mental health.
Furthermore, one in three have also indicated that an infertility diagnosis caused their relationship to suffer. Of these, over half (55%) believe the diagnosis and experience caused an emotional strain.
Infertility is estimated to affect one in seven couples across the UK.