Recipharm has come to rescue of UK-based Ashton Pharma, which has
been nervously awaiting to discover its fate, having spent five
months in administration after its former owners Inyx Inc. suffered
major financial woes.
Merck & Co. and its partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals have stopped
enrolling cancer patients to the clinical trial of its aurora
kinase trial after one patient suffered heart problems.
Geneart has launched the first fully on-line gene construct design
and ordering system, dubbed Mr Gene, which is targeting the
emerging 'low-price' segment of the synthetic biology market.
New research from Frost & Sullivan provides a snapshot of
biopharma spending trends on contract research organisations
(CROs), along with forecasts for industry growth.
Pfizer's revelation this week that it plans to slice jobs in Puerto
Rico is the latest in a string of blows for this popular offshore
manufacturing location.
Alfacell, Phoqus Pharmaceuticals, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Stem Cell
Sciences, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals and ISPE have all had people
on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Cisbio has licensed BellBrook Labs' ADP immunodetection technology
for use in its HTRF screening system that will enable researchers
to study the activity of any protein kinase.
Scientists have discovered that a protein called cystatin C can
prevent damaging Alzheimer's plaques from forming by keeping their
constituent protein water soluble.
Researchers at Randox, UK, have developed a biochip that enables
the simultaneous measurement of 12 human cytokines from human serum
samples enabling cytokine studies to be conducted faster.
NanoSight's particle size analysers have found in a new home in the
laboratories of 'nanotoxicologists' due to their ease of use and
rapid ability to size and count individual nanoparticles.
The Enterion capsule is quickly becoming big pharma's new best
friend as the technology helps drug companies assess the
feasibility of oral modified release formulations.
Celgene has agreed to pay $2.9bn for Pharmion in the hope of
becoming a 'global leader in the haematology and oncology field',
but do the company's pipelines match up well together?
Workers at Johnson & Johnson's (J&J's) Belgium subsidiary
went on strike today in protest at the compensation being offered
to those at the firm falling foul of the dreaded pharma axe.
Contract pharmaceutical development company Azopharma has carved
out its drug delivery segment into a new company, APIcross Drug
Delivery Technologies.
After a clinical hiccough five months ago set Coley
Pharmaceutical's drug development funding back several years,
Pfizer has stepped in to save the day, snapping up the biotech for
$164m.
Hungarian pharma Gedeon Richter has announced plans to combine with
Polish firm Polpharma to create a major presence in Central Eastern
Europe (CEE) through a share deal worth HUF231bn ($1.3bn).
Australian proteomics fluorescence expert Fluorotechnics has
acquired ETC Elektrophorese-Technik to gain access to the company's
electrophoresis expertise and product lines.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given stakeholders an
extra month to get their views in on scrapping epinephrine inhalers
containing CFCs.
AstraZeneca, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Pieris, Theraptosis and
InteKrin Therapeutics have all had people on the move in the world
of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Pfizer yesterday announced a multi-million dollar pay-off to
ex-partner Nektar Therapeutics, but the details of the deal reveal
not only Nektar's concerns for its future, but also that Pfizer is
still keeping its fingers in the...
Nanogen has decided to pull the plug on its microarray business
after not finding any 'financially meaningful opportunities' for
it, reducing staff by 20 per cent in the process.
As of next year Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers will face a
tougher time gaining good manufacturing practice (GMP)
certification after the country's regulator signalled new and
stricter standards were on the way.
NPIL Pharma last week told workers at its former Pfizer plant in
Morpeth, UK that the company is considering hiving off jobs in a
bid to maintain the site's viability.
Applied Biosystems and BioTrove have signed a licensing and
collaboration agreement to commercialise an analysis platform for
high-throughput (HT) genotyping applications.
Artel's third 'Extreme Pipetting' expedition went to Death Valley,
US, to see the size of errors that dry heat would introduce to
pipetted volumes and found they could be as high as 35 per cent.
An analyst report released yesterday identified AstraZeneca as
being in 'serious trouble' and branded it as potentially
the 'worst [large cap] performer in [the] entire sector'
over the next eight years.
Management of publicly-traded Synexus have agreed to the £18.1m
(€25.7m) sale of the company to a private equity firm that has
promised to fund its global expansion ventures.
China's second largest contract research organisation (CRO)
ShangPharma has attracted $30m (€21m) from US private
investment firm TPG as the Asian pharma market continues to simmer.
A new 3D model of the human liver that even has its own blood
supply could pump new life into drug safety tests by predicting
problems earlier and cut down on animal experiments.
Tripos Discovery Research (TDR) has risen from the ashes
surrounding the liquidation of its previous owners Tripos, Inc. to
land a 'library enrichment' deal with Schering-Plough.
Swedish construction firm Skanska today announced that it has been
awarded a multi-million dollar contract to expand a pharmaceutical
facility in the US, though the company is keeping the identity of
its client close to its chest.
AstraZeneca's axe has made its latest appearance in South Africa,
with the sale of a packaging plant and the formation of an
outsourcing deal with its new owners.
US-based Aveo Biopharmaceuticals is hoping to prove its R&D
strategy can buck high industry failure rates when trying to design
new cancer drugs and it seems to be working after its lead drug has
passed a first-in-man trial with...
Agilent has signed a definitive agreement to acquire automation
expert Velocity11 for an undisclosed amount to enable it to speed
up drug discovery and genomics research.
This week two sets of contract research organisations (CROs) have
announced plans to link arms in order to spread their reach further
into this increasingly globalised marketplace.
NanoImaging Services has opened what it claims is a first of its
kind fee-for-service imaging business to enable structural
characterisation and validation of biological drugs throughout the
development pipeline.
Researchers from Amgen have published results detailing a method
that improves the analysis of the sugar groups attached to
monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and proteins.
INC Research, Quintiles, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Charles River
Laboratories and PharmaNet have all had people on the move in the
world of pharmaceutical outsourcing.