Trending News Today: Clinical Trial Approved for New Lung Cancer Vaccine

The controversy around Mylan’s price hike for EpiPens is ongoing, as new government data provided to Reuters revealed that the cost increase has added million to US Department of Defense spending since 2008. According to The New York Times, Pentagon spending jumped from $9 million in 2008 to $57 million over the past year. This increase was driven by volume and price hikes that had a large effect on prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies, the Times reported.

The FDA has approved the first clinical trial to test a lung cancer vaccine, developed in Havana, combined with the immunotherapy drug Opdivo, reported The Washington Post. The new trial will enroll 60 to 90 patients, and could start as soon as next month. Researchers predict it will likely take 3 years to complete the study. The goal of the trial is to see if CIMAvax-EGF vaccine combined with Opdivo will improve efficacy.

Enrollment has been suspended for 2 of AstraZeneca PLC’s large clinical trials on head and neck cancer, according to The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment was temporarily suspended as part of routine safety monitoring after some patients experienced bleeding. During this time, researchers will analyze whether the treatment is causing the bleeding.