Galcanezumab (Emgality)

CADTH recommends that Emgality should be reimbursed by public drug plans for the prevention of migraine if certain conditions are met. Emgality should only be covered to prevent migraine attacks in adult patients who have tried at least 2 other types of oral preventive medications. Emgality should only be reimbursed if the patient is being cared for by a physician who has experience managing migraine headaches. Emgality will only be reimbursed for 6 months at a time. Emgality should not be more than the least costly drug of the same class used to prevent migraine.

Efficacy of Generic Bortezomib Used as a Part of CyBorD Regimen to Achieve Complete Response in Multiple Myeloma

Bortezomib is a preferred yet costly drug in multiple myeloma (MM) treatment. Thus, despite its benefits, bortezomib is substituted with cheaper options like thalidomide; sometimes compromising the efficacy of treatment. This case report of a 53-year old transplantation eligible MM patient from Colombia shows that substituting branded bortezomib with its generic version in the bortezomib, cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone (CyBorD) regimen can also help in complete remission. This case provides evidence that high quality generic drug is as safe and efficacious as the innovator product. Improving awareness about clinical and cost saving benefits of generic medications in oncology practices could make cancer treatment affordable for many patients in lower and middle-income countries (LMIC) like Colombia. Clinical usage of generic drugs similar to that of their branded/innovator counterparts is the need of the hour. Adequate policies along with transparent and ethical promotions must be implemented to ensure maintenance of high quality care at an affordable cost.

A label-free alternative to ELISA: Protein interaction analysis in drug development and production

With the ever-increasing understanding of the complexity of human protein interactions that impact directly on the safety and efficacy of therapeutic interventions, so the responsibility of researchers and drug companies to fully characterize drug candidates becomes a more and more onerous task. Using conventional methods, like ELISA, to examine even the most obvious interaction of, for example, a therapeutic antibody can add weeks or months on to the development process and clog up R&D programmes with thousands of man hours. And failure to fully examine the nature of important interactions may result in costly drug failures further down the pipeline.