DOV Pharmaceutical has announced the initiation of a Phase Ib
clinical trial, which investigates the potential of its triple
reuptake inhibitor candidate for treating depression. The drug's
mechanism of action inhibits three...
The latest research included in the proceedings of the Interscience
Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) means
that antibiotic treatments and management therapies feature
strongly in DrugResearcher’s round-up...
India's Ranbaxy Laboratories has been granted a US patent on its
controlled-release drug delivery system, which takes the form of a
'floating' tablet that once swallowed, is retained in the upper
gastrointestinal...
Cambridge Biostability Limited (CBL) has commissioned the world's
first commercial sterile spray dryer for childhood vaccines, in
which the £1 million (€1.5 million) facility will produce clinical
trial material providing a precursor...
The European Commission has profiled the top 100 biotech technology
offers in a new brochure, which showcases the offers in such a way
that encourages European researchers to pursue the exploitation of
their own research results.
Budding biotech company Artelis is the first to benefit from
Solvay's new strategy to undertake 50 per cent of its new projects
in partnership with outside start-up companies.
Merck & Co said it would cut an additional $1 billion (€832
million) through 2010 as it struggles to regain R&D momentum
after mounting lawsuits, generic competition and falling revenue
and profit threaten to engulf the company,...
Scientists have found a new way to sneak drugs past the blood-brain
barrier by using stem cell derived brain cells to deliver a
critical growth factor that has already shown clinical promise for
treating Parkinson's disease.
The first single laboratory platform for 3D imaging and metrology
of microfluidic devices has been made available, which allows for
the characterisation of subsurface structure in transparent media
with submicron accuracy.
Patheon has resumed normal production of Omnicef antibiotic powder
after it voluntarily suspended production in September at it
facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico, due to a US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) manufacturing warning.
Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a self-assembling
cube-shaped perforated container, which may serve as a delivery
system for medications and cell therapy that can easily be tracked
via MRI.
Degussa is streamlining its organization and decreasing the number
of business units from 20 to 17, in order to compete in the global
markets and be in a better position to exploit growth
opportunities.
Superfos Pharma, one of Europe's leading suppliers of plastic
packaging for the pharma market, has been acquired by Gerresheimer
in a move that should double the group's turnover in plastics to
€50 million.
Omnicare will soon be offering staff that are "eClinical trained"
as a strategic tool to woo clinical trial contracts and compete
with services offered by rival contract research organizations
(CROs) such as Quintiles.
MiraiBio has released software for the statistical analysis of
multiplexed data generated on its liquid array detection system, a
platform that is designed for immunoassay, enzyme function, and
receptor-ligand interaction applications,...
Latest data by La Jolla Pharmaceuticals indicate the potential of
novel, orally active small molecule inhibitors of a central enzyme
may provide clinical benefit for the treatment of stroke,
ulcerative colitis, and other autoimmune...
New insights into the dysregulation of beta cells and their impact
on type 2 diabetes progression is now possible after Roche
announced a partnership, which aims to identify novel pathways and
new biomarkers for drug development.
According to a new report, it will become a necessity to outsource
key activities related to securing and managing of data in the life
sciences industry. This, coupled with the regulatory compliance, is
driving the IT spending amongst...
The first diagnostic test available for the confirmation of chronic
sinusitis (CS) disease has been made available by Accentia
Biopharmaceuticals, which will assist in the identification of a
problem that affects an estimated 31 million...
A toxicology-on-a-chip tool, which can analyse drug candidates for
toxicity before they advance to pre-clinical stages, has taken one
step further towards commercialisation as the technology promises
to aid laboratory researchers...
EU ministers yesterday agreed on a compromise version of the
controversial new chemicals law, REACH, however environment groups
have condemned the latest changes as a further watering down of the
law in favour of industry.
SciGen are to establish a manufacturing facility in China in a
response to the growing demand for the Hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine
and insulin, which has reached epidemic proportions with 2 billion
people having become infected with...
SRA International has received a $15 million outsourcing contract
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide enterprise
messaging and IT infrastructure support services over the next 6
years.
Drug production company Patheon has released its fourth-quarter
results, which has revealed that profit has jumped 180 per cent
despite a recent production halt at a Puerto Rican subsidiary. This
bodes well for the recent manufacturing...
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has positioned itself to dominate the US flu
vaccine market after it completed the acquisition of Canadian
vaccine company ID Biomedical for $1.7 billion (€1.15 billion) last
week.
US drug company, Eli Lilly, offered a more encouraging outlook than
was expected forecasting an earnings growth of up to 12 per cent, a
stark contrast to its struggling competitors, who also face generic
competition, drug safety and...
Shanghai-based biotech company WuXi PharmaTech has grown more than
100 times in the last 5 years after operating successfully in
China's infant biotech industry by providing variety of outsourcing
services in drug R&D.
Ventiv health reported a strong performance across all its business
units in the third quarter, with total revenues increasing by 44
per cent to $128.4 million (€107.6 million) compared to the third
quarter of 2004.
Thermo Electron Corporation, have added to its crystallisation
range with the new compact, entry-level, TableStore, which enhances
protein structure and drug discovery investigations by offering
optical clarity and automated storage...
Solexa has announced the introduction of its DNA sequencing,
expression profiling and micro-RNA analysis platform designed to
generate over a billion bases of sequence per run, making it ideal
for plans to sequence the entire human...
A new therapy for Parkinson's disease involving brain implants has
been developed by US scientists, who believe this new treatment is
a viable alternative to drugs currently used to treat this chronic
irreversible brain condition.
CuraGen and TopoTarget have announced preliminary data suggesting
its small molecule candidate may have potential anti-tumour
activity against haematologic cancer.
US drug company, Eli Lilly, offered a more encouraging outlook than
was expected forecasting an earnings growth of up to 12 per cent, a
stark contrast to its struggling competitors, who also face generic
competition, drug safety and...
The world's first transdermal patch for the treatment of
Alzheimer's disease (AD) will offer patients an improved treatment
delivery choice and could lead to more patients taking their
medication.
Roche has responded to recent criticism that it was protecting its
avian-flu formula too closely by identifying 12 prospective
partners to increase the global production of Tamiflu.
UK drug development company SkyePharma, which put itself up for
sale last month, has said that several new bidders have expressed
interest in buying some of its assets as well as acquiring the
entire company for cash.
Biovest International used the Cancer Research Institute's recent
meeting to debut its newest cell culture instrument, the
AutovaxID-C, which represents an advance in personalised medicine,
reducing the possibility of cross contamination,...
SR Pharma, specializing in RNAi therapeutics, will be the first
company to use the new UK National Biomanufacturing Centre (NBC),
operated by contract manufacturing organization (CMO) Eden
Biodesign, when it opens on schedule early...
Contract research organisations (CROs) are responding to the
looming threat of competition from India and China by moving
outside their traditional role of simply providing contract
services to drug companies.
UK's MedPharm has received a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
grant for Research and Development to produce its new spray
treatment for eczema, expected to be available in the US by 2009.
Covalent Group has improved its financial position on last year,
reporting a net revenue increase of 45 per cent for the third
quarter of 2005 with sales of $2.7 million, (€2.3 million) compared
to $1.9 million one year ago.
Pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers are increasingly moving
to adopt software services that prevent revenue leakage and
regulatory compliance exposure.
Generex Biotechnology announced its Oral-lyn, the first
non-injectable form of recombinant human insulin available for
commercial distribution anywhere in the world is being launched in
Ecuador to soon become available through physician...
Innovata has entered into a second agreement in which the
development of a combination asthma therapy could generate in
excess of £25 million (€37 million) in milestones and development
funding.
CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics (CMD) are to collaborate with the
University Of California (UCLA), on a gene-based melanoma
laboratory test, which if successful, could result in the
development of a clinical molecular test that...
Samson Medical Technologies has signed a co-marketing agreement
with Baxa for its novel packaging system designed to improve
patient safety by reducing the risk of medication errors in
prescription drug compounding.
Clontech has announced a new addition to its TALON chemistry range,
which uses magnetic bead technology to separate microscale
quantities of protein when placed on a magnetic separator.
According to a new report, 2006 will be a crunch year for companies
that have expiring product patents looming. With generics
increasingly penetrating the market, this has thrown into doubt the
growth of this industry in the foreseeable...
GE Healthcare has announced the availability of its single-use spin
column designed for purification of histidine-tagged proteins using
a standard microcentrifuge. It saves researchers time as it
achieves direct protein purification...
Phoqus has announced it has commenced Phase I of a clinical study
researching its experimental treatment, which could become the
first Circadian endocrine treatment for adrenal insufficiency.
