Industry News

Imfinzi Assigned Unique HCPCS Code for Reimbursement by CMS

Effective for dates of services on or after January 1, 2019, the following code can be used to identify Imfinzi (durvalumab, AstraZeneca) when billing across settings of care as noted in the Medicare Program: Changes to Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems and Quality Reporting Programs:
- J9173: Injection, durvalumab, 10 m
Read the full CY 2019 OPPS Final Rule here.

Posted 11/20/2018

FDA Approves Pembrolizumab for Hepatocellular Carcinoma
On November 9, the Food and Drug Administration approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck & Co., Inc.) for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have been previously treated with sorafenib.

Read the Merck press release here.

Posted 11/12/2018

FDA Approves Elotuzumab, Pomalidomide, Dexamethasone for Multiple Myeloma
On November 6, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the Food and Drug Administration approved elotuzumab (Empliciti) injection for intravenous use in combination with pomalidomide and dexamethasone (EPd) for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies, including lenalidomide and a proteasome inhibitor.

Read the Bristol-Myers Squibb press release here.

Posted 11/7/2018

FDA Approves Lorlatinib for ALK+ Metastatic NSCLC

On November 2, the FDA granted accelerated approval to lorlatinib (Lorbrena, Pfizer Inc.) for patients with ALK+ metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on crizotinib and at least one other ALK inhibitor for metastatic disease or whose disease has progressed on alectinib or ceritinib as the first ALK inhibitor therapy for metastatic disease.

Read the full FDA press release here.

Posted 11/5/2018

FDA Approves Pembrolizumab for First-Line Treatment of Metastatic Squamous NSCLC
On October 30, the Food and Drug Administration approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck & Co., Inc.) in combination with carboplatin and either paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel as first-line treatment of metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Read the full FDA press release here.

Posted 10/31/2018

FDA Approves Talazoparib for gBRCAm HER2- Breast Cancer
On October 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved talazoparib (Talzenna, Pfizer Inc.) for the treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm), HER2 negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Patients must be selected for therapy based on the use of the FDA-approved companion diagnostic BRACAnalysis CDx (Myriad Genetics, Inc.).

Read the full FDA press release here.

Posted 10/16/18

FDA Expands Approval of HPV Vaccine to People Aged 27 to 45
On October 5, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approved use of Gardasil 9 (Human Papillomavirus [HPV] 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant, Merck & Co.) to include individuals aged 27 through 45 years. Gardasil 9 prevents certain cancers and diseases caused by nine types of HPV. Gardasil 9 was previously approved for individuals aged 9 through 26 years.

Read the full FDA press release here.

Posted 10/8/2018

Imfinzi Demonstrates Overall Survival Benefit in Stage III Lung Cancer

AstraZeneca and MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, have presented data on overall survival (OS) in the Phase III PACIFIC trial of Imfinzi (durvalumab) during the Presidential Symposium of the IASLC 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in Toronto, Canada. Results were published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Results from the Phase III PACIFIC trial in patients with unresectable Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease had not progressed following chemoradiation showed that Imfinzi significantly improved OS, the second primary endpoint of the trial, compared to placebo regardless of PD-L1 expression, reducing the risk of death by 32%.

Read the full corporate press release here.

Posted 9/28/18

FDA Approves Dacomitinib for Metastatic NSCLC
On September 27, the Food and Drug Administration approved dacomitinib tablets (Vizimpro, Pfizer Inc.) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test.

Read the full FDA press release here.

Posted 9/28/18

Pfizer Announces Relief for Cancer Patients Affected by Hurricane Florence

Pfizer Oncology has announced emergency relief protocols to ensure that patients who receive their Pfizer Oncology medicines through the Pfizer Patient Assistance Program and are impacted by Hurricane Florence have continued access to their medications.
In addition to these emergency protocols, Pfizer has also activated a comprehensive and coordinated plan at the company-wide level to provide further disaster support.

Read more here.

Posted 9/24/18

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