A recent article published in the leading scientific journal of Nature (Designer matrices for intestinal stem cell and organoid culture, Matthias P. Lutolf et al from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, Nature, Published online 16 November 2016, doi:10.1038/nature20168) reported the first intestinal and colorectal cancer organoid culture in fully defined extracellular matrix […]
In November 2015, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Amgen’s pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) to increase survival of people acutely exposed to high-dose radiation that damages the bone marrow, which will improve access to the drug in the event of a public health emergency such as a nuclear power plant accident or terrorist attack. […]
Pegfilgrastim is a PEGylated form of the recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor analog filgrastim. It serves to stimulate the level of white blood cells. Pegfilgrastim has a human half-life of 15 to 80 hours, much longer than the parent filgrastim (3–4 hours). Multiple major pharma companies have been busy developing biosimilar drugs of the the […]
In March 2015, the FDA approved the first biosimilar drug for use in the United States. The drug called Zarxio, produced by Sandoz, is used to help prevent infections in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, and it is a biosimilar alternative to an existing protein biologic drug called Neupogen made by Amgen. In reviewing the FDA’s […]
