Beginning with a major acquisition, the drugs giant AstraZeneca (AZ) has confirmed its takeover of the core respiratory business from the company Takeda. The deal means AZ gain the rights to a medicine called roflumilast (marketed as Daliresp in the U.S. and Daxas in other countries.) This pharmaceutical product is used for treeating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
AZ has also divested itself of a product: the drug Imdur is now sold outside the U.S. by China Medical System Holdings and Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding. The deal is worth $190 million.
In further acquisition news, Abbott are to acquire St. Jude Medical for $25 Billion. Here, Abbott executives have indicated the deal will create “a premier medical device leader”, with about $11 billion a year in annual revenue.
According to QMed, St. Jude Medical’s strong positions in heart failure devices, atrial fibrillation and cardiac rhythm management complement Abbott’s leading positions in coronary intervention and transcatheter mitral repair.
With new product developments, Ferring Pharmaceuticals has announced that its new nocturia treatment, called Nocdurna, has been approved by the European Commission. Nocturia describes the frequent waking-up with the need to pass urine at night. One episode of nocturia per night is considered within normal limits, outside of this, medical advice should be sought.
In relation to the approval, Dr Pascal Danglas, chief medical officer at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, told Zenopa: “The long and thorough development process has enabled us to provide gender-specific dosages, enabling a personalised medicine approach for men and women.”
In less positive news, Cook Medical have announced they are recalling 4 million catheters from hospitals. The reason for the recall is because the nylon catheter tips appear to be susceptible to polymer degradation. To date, some 30 reports of problems have been received from hospitals.
With the recall, Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Medical and Cook Group has said: “We’ve been investigating a variety of factors including environmental influences, and it’s been difficult for us to reproduce the exact failures that our customers have experienced.”
