The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee recently advanced a proposed law that would update how Americans get their drinking water.

Vifor Pharma recently said it began three new tests for Ferinject (ferric carboxymaltose), its intravenous iron replacement therapy for patients with systolic heart failure and iron deficiency.

Puma Biotechnology has hit its goal in terms of how many people it has signed up for a Phase III test of PB272 (neratinib) to fight breast cancer.

&&& Genoptix Inc. now offers three tests to help doctors better prescribe medicines that use the immune system to fight cancers with solid tumors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved AstraZeneca's Tagrisso (osimertinib) for treating patients with certain forms of lung cancer.

Novartis said recently that a review of the outcomes of a test of diabetics who had heart failure in which their left ventricle could no longer contract as it should indicates Entresto pills helped those diabetics better manage their blood sugar levels than enalapril.

GlaxoSmithKline said recently it was preparing to launch a Phase III study of mepolizumab in fighting severe hypereosinophilic syndrome.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Incyte are undertaking registrational trials of the tandem use of Opdivo (nivolumab) and epacadostat as an initial treatment for two types of cancer.

Chemotherapy may save lives, but it can also cause patient hair loss – which is why pharmaceutical device maker Dignitana Inc. developed a special cap, recently FDA approved, to prevent this unpleasant side effect.

Positive results from a Phase 3 clinical trial recently prompted the European Commission to approve Besponsa, Pfizer Inc.’s new immunotherapy treatment for patients suffering from B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the pharmaceutical said in a release.

The Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has given marketing approval for Olumiant 2 mg and 4 mg tablets for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is taking steps to promote wider access to lower-cost alternatives to prescription medication and facilitating efforts to bring more generic medications to the market.dd Teaser here

AbbVie said a subcommittee of the European Medicines Agency has recommended marketing authorization approval of hepatitis C drug Maviret, a step toward broadening the available treatments for patients with liver and kidney disease in approximately 30 European and Scandinavian countries.

Regulators in the European Union are set to consider whether Mimpara, a drug from Amgen used to treat parathyroid disease, can be used in children as young as 3 who also suffer from kidney failure.

Pfizer said its drug tafamidis, an investigational treatment for transthyretin cardiomyopathy (TTR-CM), a rare, fata disease linked to progressive heart failure, has been granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fast track designation.

Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently received approval from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for its drug Kevzara to treat people with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

Merck said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to use Keytruda to treat certain types of solid tumor cancers.

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval to Imfinzi (durvalumab).

Based on data from an international clinical trial, U.S. drugmaker Amgen has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to allow use of Xgeva (denosumab) to prevent bone fractures among multiple myeloma patients.

In a move that could help open the U.S. market for biosimilars, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration subcommittee recently greenlighted Pfizer Inc.’s epoetin alfa compound, an emulation of two medicines designed to relieve anemia in patients who have cancer and kidney disease.