French drug delivery company Novagali Pharma has completed
early-stage clinical testing of an oral formulation of paclitaxel,
a widely used cancer drug usually delivered by intravenous
infusion.
Germany's Merck KGaA has laid out its plans to take on the market
for generic respiratory medicines, revealing that it is the
previously unnamed company that has licensed UK inhaler company
Innovata's Clickhaler device in...
KemFine, the fine chemicals business created via a management
buyout from chemicals group Kemira last year, has acquired Avecia
Fine Chemicals' business based in Grangemouth, Scotland.
Italy's Bonfiglioli has updated its BLI leak testing machine for
blister packaging, first introduced last year, with the ability to
automate sampling between the blister machine and the cartoner for
in-process automatic testing.
A discovery by scientists may provide a novel method to generate
proteins, providing an effective way of generating therapeutic
enzymes and other medically important proteins to produce novel
drugs.
Researchers in the US have constructed a new virus-based gene
therapy delivery system that has uses in cancer treatment. The
findings are said to provide a solution to the problems that have
hampered gene therapy treatments.
Nabi Pharmaceuticals has received a $4.1 million grant to advance
the only vaccine being developed in the US and Europe for tobacco
addiction. The vaccine is being developed to treat nicotine
addiction and smoking relapse with a view...
GlaxoSmithKline has halted clinical trials of its first-in-class
HIV drug after cases of hepatotoxicity was discovered in
treatment-naïve patients. The setback does not mean the end of
development for this drug candidate but suggests...
A new drug candidate, which targets the protein that protects
cancer cells from dying, has been shown to exhibit increased
anti-tumour activity when combined with an existing cancer
treatments. The data gives hope to those who have...
Switzerland's Wilco AG has developed a new version of its award
winning headspace testing system for pharmaceutical vials that
boosts its throughput by 50 per cent.
UK pharmaceutical testing company Cirrus Laboratories has been
acquired by Bodycote Materials Testing, an international provider
of materials testing services to industry.
Applied Pharma Research, a Swiss R&D firm specialising in drug
delivery, has granted an exclusive license to US drugmaker ProEthic
Pharmaceuticals to develop and market two fast-acting formulations
of the painkiller diclofenac...
Medimmune announced the signing of an agreement to acquire
Cellective Therapeutics, in a deal that furthers its strategy of
increasing new drug candidates in its specialist areas of cancer
and autoimmune diseases such as lupus and...
EntreMed has entered into a research and development agreement with
the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to evaluate the role of
HIF-1alpha inhibition in the treatment of cancer. The agreement
aims to establish the relationship between...
Novis, the publisher of DrugResearcher.com, 22 other business news
websites and more than 50 specialist e-newsletters, is today
changing its name to Decision News Media, to convey the editorial
ethos that has made the group's...
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking to retain their
internal focus on research and development (R&D) and marketing
while outsourcing their manufacturing processes, thus fueling a
growing demand for the manufacturing...
Sandoz, the generic drug unit of Swiss pharmaceutical group
Novartis, has filed a law suit against the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) alleging that the agency is dragging its feet
in a review of a 'biogeneric' drug...
BioSante Pharmaceuticals has licensed its calcium phosphate (CaP)
nanotechnology - used for drug delivery and as an adjuvant for
vaccines - to an unnamed European pharmaceutical company.
Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co
of the US, is to partner with the European Foundation for the Study
of Diabetes (EFSD), to further explore a novel area of diabetes
research.
STMicroelectronics and Mobidiag unveil a new technology that
enables rapid bacterial diagnosis. The new lab-on-a-chip
application allows a more accurate detection of infectious diseases
that will lead to better treatment choices.
Merck has signed a research and drug development agreement with
FoxHollow Technologies, which represents the first
pharmaceutical-medical device partnership aimed at identifying
cardiovascular biomarkers for use as diagnostics and...
According to a new report nanotechnology tools for drug discovery
will grow from $580 million (€471.6 million) in 2004 to $1.1
billion in 2010, driven by corporate R&D and new commercial
applications.
Novavax and Wave Biotech are to collaborate on the development of a
commercial scale production process for the former's pandemic
influenza virus vaccine and other biological products.
A US think tank, The Centre for Medicines in the Public Interest,
has released a new report projecting counterfeit drug sales to
reach $75 billion in 2010, a 92 per cent increase from 2005.
DelSite Biotechnologies has filed a Drug Master File (DMF) with the
US Food and Drug Administration for an excipient used for drug
delivery - called GelSite - used to formulate vaccines, proteins
and peptide drugs that are delivered...
BioFocus enters a new class of compound libraries with its
collection of novel low molecular weight compounds. The compilation
will allow drug researchers to find ligands that bind to proteins
without having to invest in specialised...
Wyatt Technology's DynaPro Titan range of dynamic light scattering
(DLS) instruments can be used to determine whether freezing alters
a protein's homogeneity, according to researchers in France.
Sugar is a useful excipient for use in medications because of its
ability to mask bitter tastes, but its use in drugs intended for
chronic use, or which reside in the mouth for an extended period,
raises the risk of dental caries.
Switzerland's Lonza has boosted its ability to make active
pharmaceutical ingredients (API) at its Visp site in response to
what it said was 'ever increasing hygienic and regulatory
requirements'.
SuperArray Bioscience has introduced a product that combines the
profiling capabilities of microarrays with the performance of
real-time PCR. This novel technology will bring expression
profiling to researchers who prefer PCR based...
Researchers have discovered a single therapy that could treat four
viral diseases, which could mean new avenues of laboratory
research. The treatment focuses on viruses responsible for HIV,
measles, Ebola and Marburg.
Biovitrum has initiated phase I trials for its glaucoma drug
candidate that aims to improve over existing current treatments and
satisfy the need in the market for new drugs with novel active
mechanisms of action.
Ambion and Rosetta Genomics have announced a licensing and
commercialisaton agreement to advance microRNA research. The
results will facilitate microRNA research that hails this as a
promising area in the treatment of a range of diseases.
CyBio launches its new pipetting system designed for newcomers to
automation in small to medium sized laboratories. The system is
CyBio's response to academia and biotech research requirements for
a 96 well pipetting system.
Separations specialist Whatman is starting to reap the benefits of
its acquisition of Schleicher & Schuell, but had a difficult
first half to the year with the group's combined revenues down
marginally compared to first-half...
Roche Diagnostics has announced it has settled all litigation in
the United States, Europe and Australia, with Promega concerning
Polymerase Chain Reaction Technology (PCR), ending a decade of
litigation between the two companies.
A novel painkiller in development at Pain Therapeutics - based on a
technology that both improves dosing and prevents drug abuse - has
done well in a Phase III clinical trial.
According to a new report, the global diabetic population is set to
double by 2030, with treatments currently falling way short of
medical needs. The focus falls on impending products offering novel
therapies to diabetics and for...
Scientists in the US have discovered a cellular switch that
controls immune system function. The research could lead to future
drug treatment advancements for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple
sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.
US biotechnology company Biogen Idec has succumbed to the effects
of having to withdraw its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri
(natalizumab) earlier this year, cutting 17 per cent of its
workforce and putting manufacturing facilities...
Quicker review times by the US Food and Drug Administration has not
increased the number of prescription drugs withdrawn for safety
reasons in the country, according to the Tufts Centre for the Study
of Drug Development.
Scientists in research and academia have called for the end to the
pharmaceutical industry's 'cynical use' of drug studies and its
subjects who are often misled into taking part.
Diabetics moved a step closer to having an alternative to
injections for their insulin therapy yesterday, after a US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee gave its backing to an
inhaled formulation of the drug developed...
US researchers think they may have solved the puzzle as to why p53
activity occurs in both the nucleus and cytoplasm during apoptosis.
The discovery could form a basis in the development of new
anti-cancer therapies that target protein...
US biotechnology firm XOMA has granted Wyeth a non-exclusive,
worldwide license for a technology used to make biologic drugs such
as antibodies in bacteria instead of mammalian cells.
Bayer Healthcare has selected InforSense technology for the
development of its integrative analytics infrastructure on a deal
that sees InforSense provide a workflow-based cheminformatics
platform.
Biotechnology firm, MorphoSys, have announced an agreement with
pharmaceutical company Shionogi, in a deal that fits into
MorphoSys' effort to expand geographically into the Japanese market
- currently the second largest individual...
Generics manufacturer Andrx Corp has become the latest generic
drugs manufacturer to fall foul of the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) because of quality issues at a manufacturing
plant.
Dutch biotechnology company Crucell and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine
Foundation has announced the initiation of a series of clinical
studies for a unique TB vaccine, which allows millions of doses to
be manufactured simultaneously...