A new study has revealed the existence of new drug targets for
tuberculosis (TB) treatments, which could essentially dictate the
design of TB drugs of the future. The bacterium that causes TB
currently infects one person in three...
Velocity11 make available a benchtop microplate handling system
that claims to provide the features and flexibility of much larger
and more expensive automation platforms.
AstraZeneca has pulled the plug on a long-running service contract
with PDI, adding another blow to the company who last week reported
a dive from profit to loss in 2005, with a net loss of nearly $20m
(€16m), versus net income of...
A newly discovered process that explains how the body's nervous
system relays information, may depend on how "wet" the "kiss" is
when one neuron fires a packet of neurotransmitter across a synapse
to a receptive...
New research has suggested only seven per cent of drug applications
for treating people with rare diseases were approved in Europe
between 2000 and 2004, despite the fact that there are currently
more than 5,000 conditions needing...
Stericycle, the largest provider of medical waste management
services in the US, has stretched its reach across the Atlantic,
completing the acquisition of Ireland's Sterile Technologies Group.
Last week's approval of Erbitux in the US breaks a 30-year drought
in treatments for head and neck cancer, a disease that kills 11,000
people in the US each year. Pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)
and biotech company ImClone...
British equipment supplier Isopak has launched a new pharmaceutical
dosing filler system for powders and granules, quickly and
accurately offering the doses required.
Life sciences firm Cambrex has reported a $140.3m (€116.7m) loss in
Q4 as opposed to a profit of $4.9m in Q4 last year, hit by lower
long-term profitability projections for its Biopharma unit, as
biotech companies seem to lose their...
Japan's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company, Eisai, has announced
plans for a new pharmaceutical production and formulation research
and development facility in North Carolina in anticipation of its
parenteral and intravenous...
Rising prices globally have helped Dutch chemicals manufacturer DSM
go back to profit in Q4, up to €112m (€134m) from €3m in the red a
year ago, with operating profits in its Life Science division
almost doubling to €39m, albeit thanks...
Complete data analysis in the time it takes many laboratories to
take the first steps. This is what Ambion is offering with its new
microRNA expression profiling service, claimed to surpass any
similar offerings in the market.
Transdermal science specialist Sontra has introduced an upgrade to
its ultrasonic skin permeation system, making the application of
anaesthesia even more comfortable and less painful for the patient.
Dutch life science firm PharmaCell has hired quality control
specialist Sensitech for the cold chain management of their cell
culture products, allowing it to ensure compliance with GMP
regulations.
India is suddenly a safer place to research and manufacture
pharmaceuticals, thanks to legal reform, raised manufacturing
standards and reduced bureaucracy. But risk still lurks in the
loopholes and protectionism.
Looking to expand the outsourcing services it provides,
AmerisourceBergen has snapped up Canadian drug distributor Asenda
and British pharmaceutical contract-packaging manufacturer Brecon,
indicating the aggressive strengthening of...
Anachem has just kicked off a unique new European-wide support and
maintenance service for scientific instruments - the first of its
kind - aimed to help instrumentation suppliers wanting to grow
their sales in Europe.
Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC), announced today
the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study to test the safety of
AGTC-0106, its investigational gene therapy product for patients
with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency...
GE Healthcare has announced the introduction of Ettan nanoLC, a
fully bio-inert, robust, nanoscale peptide separation system that
delivers highly reproducible performance and is ideal for 1D-liquid
chromatography (LC) proteomics applications...
Scientists have discovered a new way that drugs can attach
themselves to DNA, providing a crucial step forward for those who
are developing drugs to combat cancer and other diseases. The
breakthrough heralds a new way of recognising...
Scientists have found that certain T-cell stimulation could help
improve treatment of autoimmune disease and cancer, which could be
significant for developing new drug treatments to help patients
with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid...
2005 was a challenging year for contract sales organisations (CSO),
with many downsizing their sales teams. However, In2Focus, is
bucking the industry trend, and increasing its headcount to meet
demand.
Nastech Pharmaceutical Company, announced today the expansion of
its RNAi therapeutics pipeline by initiating an RNAi therapeutics
program targeting influenza and respiratory diseases.
California-based Electronic Sensor Technology, provider of fast
vapor analyzers, is benefiting from recent restrictions in
California Air Quality and Nuisance Odor laws that require
bad-odor-causing industries to measure and control...
Millipore, a maker of purification systems used in drug
manufacturing, has expanded its range of hydrophilic
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes, enabling it to offer
filters for virtually all solvents, acids, and alkaline solutions.
Britain's Department of Health has awarded healthcare company
Baxter and biotech firm Chiron two contracts worth £33m (€48m) in
total for the production of around 3.5m doses of H5N1 influenza
vaccine, underlying how worldwide...
Isis Pharmaceuticals and Rosetta Genomics has announced a joint
research collaboration to develop microRNA related therapies for
the treatment of liver cancer, demonstrating the therapeutic
potential of microRNA as a drug target...
Graffinity, announced today that it has entered into its second
research collaboration with Mutabilis, which aims to discover novel
therapeutics for infectious diseases, building on 2003's
collaboration focusing on another anti-infective...
An experimental TB drug has proved effective against multi
drug-resistant forms of the disease as well as becoming the first
compound to treat the latent stage of this disease, which affects
nearly a third of the world's population,...
Celera Genomics has announced that Abbott has selected two
additional cancer targets for further development, which brings the
total of targets to four under investigation as a result of the
collaboration between the companies to...
In order to stay competitive, Wyeth looks to model its business not
on that of other pharma companies, but of other successful big
industries, which includes outsourcing or off-shoring anything that
is not a core function.
Rigel has completed the Phase I stage of its drug interaction study
in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The oral syk kinase
inhibitor could be an improvement over current treatment options,
which have side effects that include...
Swiss outsourcing company Lonza has granted biotechnology firm
Genentech a non-exclusive, worldwide license to their Glutamine
Synthetase (GS) Gene Expression System which offers better yields,
speed and stability in cell protein...
A new family of objectives from Olympus specifically for Total
Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM) can selectively
visualise processes and structures of the cell membrane, minimising
photo-damage and allowing cells...
Singapore's Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) will commit
$7.5bn (€63.1bn) over the next five years to drive R&D growth
in key industry areas such as biomedical science and increase
national R&D spending to 3 per...
Drug delivery company Chrono Therapeutics has unveiled a
wristwatch-like device for the non-invasive automatic
administration of drugs based on the amount and time instructed,
thus improving patience compliance.
India is emerging as a powerhouse of pharmaceutical R&D. Backed
by a scientist president and with an army of talented scientists,
the country now has R&D capacity second only to the US, at
one-fifth of the cost.
Cambrex Bio Science has been given a contract to manufacture
Geron's GRNVAC1 telomerase vaccine for use in clinical trials and
will now transfer production to its Walkersville, Maryland
facility.
British company Q Chip has upped the stakes in the drug delivery
market with its new tailor-made bioencapsulation technology,
claiming to improve drug effectiveness, reduce side effects and
increase patient acceptance.
An insatiable Asian appetite for cell biology products has made
Fisher Scientific's cell-culture unit expand its Beijing facility,
making it the first non-native business to offer large-scale
liquid-media manufacturing in China.
A team of forensic pathologists are believed to be the world's
first to use a new radiological laboratory approach for mass
fatality investigations that could bring to the end current lab
methods that are slow and limited in...
The global market for microfiltration (MF) membranes used in liquid
separations is set to grow at an average annual rate of 9.4 per
cent to more than $1.2bn (€1bn) by 2010 from an estimated $792m in
2005 according to a new report,...
Researchers have isolated a protein molecule that may hold the key
to learning and memory disorders that have been linked with autism.
By isolating this potential drug target, new therapies for diseases
in which synapses either...
Hospira, the leading injectable contract manufacturer in the US, is
planning to close two manufacturing plants in the US and Canada in
order to improve operational efficiencies and remain competitive in
the marketplace.
If you're a big pharma company, outsourcing the writing of medical
publications is not the way to go, according to a report by
pharmaceutical business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information.
Promed is due to start operations at its new research centre in
India, New Deli, this month, in a move that will bring the company
closer to becoming a global provider of drug development and supply
services.
Thermo Electron makes available a new datasheet to provide an
overview of the capabilities of its Watson Laboratory Information
Management System (LIMS), which is designed to support drug
metabolism and pharmacokinetic (DMPK) studies...
