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The Top 10 Drug launches of 2017 following FDA green light to 22 drugs in 2016

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

UPDATED on 7/3/2017

Fears over a medical gold rush in cancer drug race

“There is some pushback,” said Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, chief executive of the Cancer Research Institute. “Are there too many trials? Are we just throwing spaghetti at the wall, by taking compound ‘X’ or ‘Y’ and adding it together just to see what happens?”  Most scientists say checkpoints do not need to be replaced with something else, but rather augmented with new drugs that can further cajole the immune system into fighting cancer. This has led to an unprecedented amount of clinical research sponsored by drugmakers, which are combining checkpoints with other medicines to try to find a magic bullet to treat cancer.  The sheer number of studies has sparked fears that some companies are engaging in a medical gold rush, hoping to chance upon the right cocktail without doing the appropriate scientific groundwork.

https://www.ft.com/content/00092dde-578c-11e7-9fed-c19e2700005f?mhq5j=e3

After an unusually slow year for new drug approvals—the FDA green lighted just 22 meds in 2016—it remains to be seen whether drugmakers can do much better in 2017. One thing’s for sure, though: No matter what total the industry tallies up this year, the crop will bring some would-be blockbusters and market disrupters.

At the top of the list, according to EP Vantage’s 2017 preview, which ranks the year’s rollouts by 2022 sales, is Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), the Roche multiple sclerosis drug that’s promising to shake things up in more ways than one. In clinical trials, the candidate bested Merck KGaA’s standard therapy Rebif, and it’s also gone where no other MS drug has gone before, posting positive data in patients with the primary progressive form of the disease. Those data will put the heat on other meds—and invite payers to pile pressure onto the segment, too.

• 1. Ocrevus
• 2. Dupixent
• 3. Semaglutide
• 4. Durvalumab
• 5. Niraparib
• 6. Baricitinib
• 7. LEE011
• 8. KTE-C19
• 9. Ingrezza
• 10. Spinraza

SOURCE

http://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-drug-launches-2017