The Food and Drug Administration stopped the trial of a Sarepta drug, called SRP-5051, after a "serious safety incident." Whistleblower lawsuits; Merck's Seagen deal; Bausch Health; and a $21.7 million donation to help combat breast cancer are also in pharma news.

Sarepta Therapeutics said Thursday that it has temporarily stopped a clinical trial of its second-generation medicine for patients with a certain type of Duchenne muscular dystrophy due to a serious safety incident reported by a patient. The Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on the Sarepta drug, called SRP-5051, after a patient in the study experienced a “serious” decrease in blood-based magnesium, a condition known as hypomagnesemia. (Feuerstein, 6/23)

In other pharmaceutical industry and research news —

Three years ago, a former CVS Health executive told a U.S. Senate committee hearing that the company — which has deep tentacles into the Byzantine system for making prescription drugs available — ensures that its customers receive the lowest-cost medicines. “When those lower list prices result in the lowest net cost for the patient as well as for the plan, then absolutely, that is the preferred drug on formulary,” said Derica Rice, who was an executive vice president at the time. He was responding to questions about the ways in which CVS places medicines on its formularies, or list of medicines covered by health insurance, created by its pharmacy benefits unit. But a recently unsealed...

Read Full Story: https://khn.org/morning-breakout/safety-issue-halts-duchenne-muscular-dystrop...