Breaking World Pharma News

Can AI find drugs to fight infection?

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterial pathogen that causes life-threatening infections, including pneumonia and meningitis. These infections are commonly treated with antibiotics, but antibiotics are becoming less effective against S. pneumoniae over time due to changes in the pathogen that cause drug resistance. This phenomenon, called antimicrobial resistance, is resulting in significant healthcare costs and deaths around the world.

How interferon changes cancerous blood stem cells

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:00:00 +0200

The biologic drug interferon-alpha can benefit patients with blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms by forcing mutant blood stem cells to become shorter-lived white blood cells, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. Because the broad activity of interferon-alpha can induce significant side effects,

New US Medicare pricing policies could reshape global pharmaceutical markets

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:17:12 +0200

New US Medicare pricing policies could reshape global pharmaceutical markets, potentially driving up prices and delaying medicine launches worldwide, study suggests. A new modelling study published in The Lancet suggests that US Medicare's new 'Most-Favoured-Nation' pricing policy [1], which ties what Medicare pays for medicines to prices charged in other high-income countries,

Pfizer advances today's cancer care and tomorrow's potential breakthroughs at ESMO

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) will present data from 45 company-sponsored, investigator-sponsored, and collaborative research abstracts at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, taking place October 23-27, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. The presentations include 11 oral presentations spanning Pfizer’s established medicines and late-stage pipeline across its disease areas of focus, including breast cancer, genitourinary cancers, and lung cancer.

Experimental study points to systemic sclerosis treatment

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University used an experimental drug to reverse the effects of systemic sclerosis, a serious autoimmune disease. The study, conducted in a laboratory, was published in JCI Insight.

Systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma, is a chronic, life-threatening condition that scars the skin, lungs, heart and other organs.

An open letter from the Chairs of AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi Group, Ipsen, GSK, Novo, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

We are proud Europeans. We serve as Chairs of companies born from European science, rooted in laboratories across Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and beyond. Our duty is to safeguard our companies’ future so that we can continue to discover and develop life-changing medicines for patients.

The pharmaceutical sector is one of our continent's great post-war achievements. Built on investment in science, world-class universities, and the determination to discover medicines that change lives.

New method causes cancer cells to burn out

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Pushing the accelerator and the brake at the same time is rarely a good idea. But researchers at the University of Gothenburg are using this approach to treat leukemia. A new drug forces cancer cells to keep working hard even though they have run out of energy. The first study in mice shows very promising results.

A team led by Leif Eriksson at the University of Gothenburg and Boaz Tirosh at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland has developed a new treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Tiny molecular rings open new ways for designing better medicines

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Cyclopropanes are organic chemistry’s smallest rings. Three carbon atoms are joined in a triangle, creating a compact and unusually strained structure. Despite - or partly because of - this unusual geometry, cyclopropanes are found in many biologically active natural products and have important applications in medicines and drug discovery, from antidepressants to antibiotics and antiviral research.

Mini-tumors reveal new drug combinations for liver cancer

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Liver cancer is difficult to treat because tumors vary greatly from patient to patient. Researchers at the University of Basel have captured this diversity by creating a collection of mini-tumors, which they use to systematically search for new treatment options. They tested more than 1,600 compounds using these organoids and used the results to develop promising drug combinations.

AI-informed AdaptiveFlow redefines large-scale cloud computing for drug discovery

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Researchers today announce AdaptiveFlow, an AI-informed platform that can virtually screen billions of drug-like molecules with a 1,000-fold reduction in computational costs over existing methods. Developed and validated by scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, University of Pavia, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, AdaptiveFlow allows prohibitively expensive ultra-large virtual drug screens to be done routinely. The open-source platform was published in Nature Biotechnology.

Child cancer groups call for concerted action

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

It’s one of the cruelest ironies in health and medicine. Pediatric sarcomas are some of the rarest yet most aggressive forms of childhood cancer, and some of the hardest to cure. Whereas many adult cancers are now treatable with new therapeutic strategies, such as immunotherapies, pediatric sarcomas have not seen nearly as many advances. Survival rates have remained largely unchanged for decades.

Experimental study points to systemic sclerosis treatment

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma, is a chronic, life-threatening condition that scars the skin, lungs, heart and other organs.

Protein build-up may shape cancer drug response

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

The way cancer-causing proteins accumulate in tumours may influence how effectively a promising new generation of medicines can remove them, a study suggests.

Researchers found that PROTAC (Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras) drugs were more effective at removing proteins that build up because they are not broken down properly than proteins that cancer cells continually produce in large amounts.

Sanofi and Cheplapharm to create new strategic partnership in mature medicines

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Sanofi and Cheplapharm, a European leader in well-established medicines, announced their intention to create a strategic partnership under which Cheplapharm would take over from Sanofi a selection of 20 mature medicines and three manufacturing sites worldwide. In return, Sanofi will receive a 26.4% equity stake in Cheplapharm, building on a collaboration that started in 2014.

Hidden immune cells in the lung could lead to better flu vaccines

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Influenza continues to cause major illness each year in the United States, leading to more than 35,000 deaths annually. Children, older adults, pregnant individuals, people with weakened immune systems, and those with chronic conditions such as heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer are especially vulnerable.

Vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent flu infection, but current vaccines do not always stop the virus from taking hold in the respiratory tract.

Novel drug shows promise in an early phase trial in heart failure

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

The oral relaxin agonist, AZD5462, improved cardiac function in patients with chronic heart failure, according to results presented in a Hot Line session at ESC Congress 2026 and published simultaneously in Circulation.

Despite several guideline-directed medical therapies for heart failure, many patients continue to experience considerable disease burden.

Cholesterol-lowering medication reduces heart attack and stroke risk in older people by 30%

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

A world-first clinical trial conducted by Monash University researchers has shown that cholesterol-lowering medication can reduce heart attack and stroke in people aged over 70 years.

Statins are commonly prescribed to manage high cholesterol in people up to 75 years, and are known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Scientists decode gene circuits of human immunity, fueling new era of disease research

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Scientists from Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco, and Stanford University, in collaboration with Biohub, have unveiled a massive, high-resolution functional map of human immune cells that promises to transform our understanding of how genetics control health and disease.

Published in the journal Cell, the study represents a landmark achievement in immunology and genomics.

FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:24:16 +0200

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Rasonque (daraxonrasib), a RAS inhibitor for the most common form of pancreatic cancer - delivering a new treatment option to patients with advanced pancreatic cancer months ahead of schedule.

This action demonstrates the agency’s commitment to moving with urgency, reducing unnecessary delays and advancing innovative treatments that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of American patients and their families.

Rethinking oral cancer treatment: A review of next-generation drug delivery systems

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Delivering drugs directly to oral tumor sites remains challenging. A recent review involving researchers from Hasanuddin University examines barriers to local drug delivery and analyses strategies for targeting oral cancer lesions. Saliva, chewing, tongue movement, and individual tumor characteristics can affect how long a medicine remains at the treatment site and how consistently it is released.