Recently, some close family friends received some bad news. Our good friend – I’ll call her Betty – has been on the novel drug Imbruvica (ibruti­nib) for her ag­gres­sive lym­phoma. Betty was on the drug for 21 months, and we were all hopeful that it would continue to keep her lym­pho­ma at bay for many years to come. Unfortunately, she was just told that her lymphoma has returned, as evidenced by numerous tumors in her ab­do­men and back.

The plan was for her to go into a clinical trial if she could do …

• Early com­bi­na­tion data from Phase 1b/2 dose-finding study indicate poten­tial efficacy in pre­vi­ously treated patients with multiple myeloma
• This release corresponds to abstract #377

North Chicago, IL (Press Release) – Today, AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), a global bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany, announced pre­lim­i­nary data from the ongoing Phase 1/2b PCYC-1119 trial suggesting that the com­bi­na­tion of ibrutinib (IMBRUVICA®) plus car­filz­o­mib with or without dexa­meth­a­sone was well tolerated in re­lapsed or refractory patients with multiple myeloma (MM), with an initial objective response rate (ORR) of 62%. These data will be presented today in an oral presentation at the 57th Annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting and Exposition in Orlando, …

• Adds Imbruvica® a first in class BTK inhibitor approved in multiple indications for blood cancers.
• Extensive clinical program with over 50 studies ongoing evaluating Imbruvica® as a treatment for a wide range of additional indications, including early assessments for solid tumors and potential treatment of Graft v Host disease.
• Broadens and deepens AbbVie's already robust pipeline, and establishes the combined company as an emerging leader in the hematological oncology space.
• Accelerates the company's commercial presence in oncology.
• Transaction valued at $261.25 per Pharmacyclics' share, total transaction value of approximately $21 billion
• Highly accretive to both revenue and earnings by 2017.

North Chicago, IL and Sunnyvale, CA (Press Release) – AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) and Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ:PCYC) today announced a definitive agree­ment under which AbbVie will acquire Pharmacyclics, and its flagship asset Imbruvica® (ibrutinib), a highly effective treat­ment for hema­to­logic malig­nan­cies. The acquisition accelerates AbbVie's clin­i­cal and commercial presence in on­col­ogy, strengthening its already robust pipe­line, and estab­lish­ing its strong leadership position in hema­to­logical on­col­ogy – …

A new year is upon us.  I hope it has started well for everybody, and that all had a great holiday season!

The last few weeks of 2014 were a hap­pen­ing time for the mul­ti­ple myeloma com­munity. The short span of time witnessed the pub­li­ca­tion of up­dated criteria for the diag­nosis of mul­ti­ple myeloma from the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Work­ing Group (IMWG). In addi­tion, the 56^th annual meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) took place in San Francisco, with literally hundreds of myeloma-related oral and poster pre­sen­ta­tions.

Therefore, it is again …

This year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) began yesterday morning in San Francisco.

Myeloma-related presentations were made during several sessions throughout the day.

The day started out with a session designed to better educate physicians about multiple myeloma and how to treat the disease.

Two sessions of oral presentations devoted solely to multiple myeloma ran simultaneously in the middle of the day. One of the sessions focused on the biology of the disease. The other one included presentations on new myeloma ther­a­pies for both newly diagnosed and re­lapsed and …

The 2014 annual meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) starts tomorrow, De­cem­ber 5, in San Francisco, and will con­tinue until next Tuesday.

The ASH annual meeting is one of sev­er­al large med­i­cal conferences where myeloma-related re­search findings are pre­sented each year.  However, from a mul­ti­ple myeloma perspective, the ASH meeting is generally the most im­por­tant of the meetings.

At this year’s meeting, for example, some 500 myeloma-presentations are scheduled to take place.  The pre­sen­ta­tions will summarize cur­rent re­search on a wide range of topics, in­clud­ing the biology of the dis­ease …