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Shire on a roll as U.S. approves keenly awaited eye drug

Shire has won U.S. approval for its most important new medicine, a treatment for dry eyes, in a fresh boost for the company which completed its $32 billion acquisition of U.S. rare diseases specialist Baxalta last month. The Dublin-based drugmaker has been a big stock market winner following Britain's decision to leave the European Union, benefiting from the strength of the dollar against sterling and investor demand for defensive sectors like pharmaceuticals. Shire shares — already up a fifth since the UK referendum on June 23 — gained another 4 percent on Tuesday on news the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved lifitegrast eye drops for treating signs and symptoms of dry eye disease.

UK cost watchdog turns down Amgen’s new cholesterol drug

Amgen’s new injectable cholesterol drug Repatha has been turned down for use on Britain’s state health service, underscoring a worldwide debate about the value of such pricey medicines. Repatha belongs to a potent new class of drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors that are extremely effective at lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol. NICE, which decides if treatments should be paid for on the National Health Service (NHS), also said in its draft guidance that analyses presented by Amgen had limitations that “called into question the reliability of the cost-effectiveness results”.

UK’s first private NHS hospital provider Circle throws in towel

(Reuters) – Circle Holdings Plc, the first private company to run a general hospital for Britain’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS), said on Friday it was pulling out of Hinchingbrooke hospital in eastern England because it was no longer sustainable. Shares in the company were down 17.6 percent in early trade. Its decision, triggered by a crisis in the provision of emergency care across the NHS in recent months, is a blow to government plans to increase the role of private companies in British healthcare. …

J&J, Bavarian Nordic start clinical tests in Ebola vaccine race

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson has started clinical trials of its experimental Ebola vaccine, which uses a booster from Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic, making it the third such shot to enter human testing. The initiation of the Phase I study in Britain, which had been expected about now, marks further progress in the race to develop a vaccine against a disease that has killed more than 8,000 people in West Africa since last year. Two other experimental vaccines, one from GlaxoSmithKline and a rival from NewLink and Merck, are already in clinical development. …