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Pharma & Bio Ingredients
Roche, which will apply Enhanze to its biological drugs, may make additional payments to San Diego-based Halozyme, worth a maximum total $581 million.
"The potential to improve the administration and bioavailability of subcutaneous medicines presents an important advance to make a difference to patients' lives," Peter Hug, Roche's pharma partnering chief, said in a statement.
Separately, Roche said a new test that helps detect heart failure more rapidly could save as much as $1,000 a patient because fewer people would be sent to hospitals unnecessarily.
The study conducted in seven hospitals found that adding its NT-proBNP test to physician judgment significantly reduced the duration of an emergency department visit to an average of 5.6 hours, down from 6.3 hours.
In addition, the test lowered the number of patients hospitalized within two months to 33, from 51.
Researchers conducted the study on 501 patients with an average age of 71, who arrived for emergency care with shortness of breath, a classic symptom of heart failure. However, as shortness of breath also is a common symptom of other conditions such as pneumonia, emergency doctors spend a lot of time trying to reach a diagnosis.
Using the test nationwide could generate yearly savings of up to $600 million in the U.S. health care system, Roche said.
