Trending News Today: FDA, COTA Partner to Gain Insight into Cancer Treatment Variation

The FDA is partnering with COTA, a precision medicine technology company, to gain better insight into treatment variation within subpopulations of patients with cancer using real-world data, The American Journal of Managed Care reported. According to the article, the program will start with breast cancer and may expand to other cancer types. The evidence generated will be enriched with COPA’s patient classification system to better understand the variance of treatment and outcomes, the article reported.

Online pharmacy Valisure reported that it identified a new cancer-causing impurity in the blood pressure drug valsartan, Reuters reported. According to the article, Valisure informed the FDA in a citizen petition last week that it found through its own testing an impurity called dimethylformamide in some batches of the drug. The agency said it would review the petition but noted that the amount in the drugs was well below levels deemed to be potentially harmful, the article reported.

A new long-term analysis found that both infliximab (IFX) and golimumab (GLM) are effective at safely reducing ankylosing spondylitis (AS) symptoms, MD Magazine reported. According to the article, the study included 810 patients with AS who received either IFX or GLM. Overall, both IFX and GLM were well tolerated by patients with AS, significantly reduced disease activity, and improved functionality, the article reported.