Recent and upcoming US FDA advisory committee meetings and a summary of topics covered.

With a constitutional challenge still pending in Germany, and lingering uncertainties over Brexit, Germany's federal government appears to have little idea when a planned European Unified Patent Court could come into effect.

The appeal is in keeping with the President Trump’s plan to stay active on drug pricing initiatives so he can claim victory on a key campaign promise.

Expert witness "battle plan," requests for summary judgment, and squabble over DEA drug distribution data offer preview of the first US bellwether trial against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.

Labeled by plaintiffs as a 'front group' for opioid makers, the organization was pulled into the multidistrict litigation in Ohio and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June. It ceased operations in July.

Payments have now been made under the UK’s 2019 pricing and access to branded medicines scheme, but industry will have to wait longer for promises on access to materialize.

Primary sponsors of the 21st Century Cures Act are trying to get the band back together. Is there hope to recapture a bipartisan, pro-innovation spirit in the current US Congress?

A review of barriers to the prescribing of cannabis-based medicines for children with epilepsy in England suggests that much needs to be done to generate the necessary evidence to assuage prescribers’ concerns. 

Roche's Richard Peck says adoption of outcomes-based pricing in the US could be powerful incentive to study precision dosing, although he also calls on drugmakers to put out scientific examples.

Novartis is pioneering the new “living drugs” model. But its present financial performance benefits from regulatory problems that have beset generic competitors to a franchise written off for dead: the antihypertensive brand Diovan (valsartan).

Amgen and Allergan launched the first US biosimilar for Roche's Herceptin – and the Swiss pharma's Avastin – at a 15% discount to the brand-name products' list prices. Infographic reviews Herceptin's past and its future competitors.

Spark signaled in an SEC filing that its merger with Roche could be delayed into 2020, fueling more speculation that FTC is increasing scrutiny over biopharma mergers.

FDA’s disclosure of data “manipulation” in the application for the SMA gene therapy Zolgensma prompted two immediate inquiries from the US Senate – with very different focuses and potential outcomes.

Lantech’s solvent recovery operations expected to meet US drug GMP requirements due to risk of carcinogens in blood pressure medications.