Bayer Biological Products will start shrink-banding its liquid
drugs produced in vials, starting with its Gamunex IGIV product, to
make them more tamper-evident and improve their safety. The move
follows an FDA initiative on counterfeiting.
The British Pharmacopoeia 2003 is due to be available in the next
few days, and from today can be ordered online; updates have also
been released from the European equivalent.
A consortium of companies and academic researchers has completed
the first phase of a mammoth screening programme designed to
discover a small-molecule drug candidate for smallpox.
Tepnel Life Sciences has trimmed its losses and boosted sales in
the year ended 30 June, helped by the sale last month of its first
robotic Nucleopure DNA purification systems.
Medisys has terminated its marketing agreement with Smiths Group
for the Futura safety syringe after last week's falling-out which
followed a further delay in the product's launch.
The speakers at next month's Manufacturing Excellence Ireland
meeting, focusing on automation and control in the pharmaceutical
industry, have been announced.
Swedish company Perbio Science has agreed to a $714 million (€626m)
takeover by Fisher Scientific International of the USA, which says
that it sees the acquisition as a means of capitalising on the
strong growth of the life science...
Crucell has granted a license for its PER.C6 cell line technology
to Novavax, allowing the latter company to start offering contract
manufacturing services for vaccines.
The European Commission has stepped back from requiring the
industry to test thousands of chemicals already used and sold in
Europe, according to an environmental group.
The future of Medisys' Futura safety syringe looked to be in doubt
again yesterday after the company conceded that its timetable for
launch of the safety syringe, originally due for launch in 2001,
had been put back yet again.
Tekni-Plex has said that its Argentinian subsidiary will begin
production of precision tubing for aerosols and other dip-tube
applications at its Buenos Aires facility.
The world market for toxicogenomics technologies is set to grow
strongly over the next five years, but needs the catalyst of
recognition by regulatory authorities.
Researchers from Icelandic genomics company deCODE Genetics have
discovered the first gene ever linked to ischaemic stroke, raising
the hope that new drugs to treat the condition may be developed.
Akubio bolsters its position in acoustic detection, which uses
sound to detect the interactions between molecules, by licensing a
complementary technology from GlaxoSmithKline.
GlaxoSmithKline has secured rights to a technology, developed in
partnership with US company Advaxis, could improve the
effectiveness of vaccine-based treatments for cancer.
Pall tells BIOPHEX/INTERPHEX conference that use of its
ultrafiltration technologies cuts both the time and cost of
conjugate vaccine production; greater adoption could increase the
availability of vaccines for diseases such as meningitis...
New products unveiled at the BIOPHEX/INTERPHEX meeting include a
cell culture centrifuge, new cleanroom equipment, a fluidised bed
processor and an isolator for aseptic testing.
Viscotek has launched a new module for its OmniSEC software for
multiple detection analysis in size separation experiments aimed at
the measurement of copolymers.
Researchers at Merck Research Laboratories have discovered a
small-molecule drug that blocks the activity of FtsZ, an emerging
therapeutic target for antibacterial agents.
A new product from Emerson Process Management is enabling steam in
place (SIP) cycle time reductions of typically 20 per cent on fully
monitored plant installations.
A production facility operated by Sigma-Aldrich was rocked by a
serious explosion on Monday. There were no casualties, but the
facility itself has been 'largely destroyed'.
The US market for media, sera and reagents used in cell culture is
expected to nearly double in value to reach $1.7 billion (€1.48bn)
in 2008, according to a report.
Dow Chemical has entered into an agreement to manufacture a
potential drug for cancer in transgenic plants. The deal, with
Sunol Molecular, covers production of the protein in plants and a
comparison with a version grown in mammalian...
Pharmaceutical major GlaxoSmithKline has set aside £1 million
(€1.4m) to soften the blow of selling its bulk active ingredient
manufacturing facility in Montrose.
Boehringer Ingelheim doubles its biopharmaceutical production
capacity at a stroke with the completion of a new plant at its site
in Biberach, Germany; a similar expansion in Austria is also
underway.
Thermo Electron has fulfilled a promise to make acquisitions in the
laboratory and life sciences area by announcing plans to acquire
French lab equipment provider Jouan SA.
A new report has suggested that an average-sized, top 20 drug
company only needs to produce two new products every three years to
maintain growth rates.
The drug industry has largely discarded shellac as a film coating
for solid oral dosage forms in favour of synthetic resins, but this
may have been premature; a recently-issued US patent reveals that
shellac is a remarkably versatile...
DeltaTrak has launched a new Pen-Type Thermo-Hygrometer with
several improvements such as a broader temperature range and
improved sensor design for faster response.
Contract research organisation (CRO) revenues have been growing
strongly as a result of drug developers' need to reduce R&D
costs while shortening product evaluation times. However, as demand
for more efficient preclinical...
Quinacrine could provide the first drug treatment for
prion-associated disorders such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
according to new research presented at ICAAC.
Roche forges an alliance with ParAllele to discover genes that
contribute to type 2 diabetes, aimed at identifying potential new
medicines and diagnostics for the disease.
Next week's Society for Biomolecular Screening annual meeting will
once again be a showcase for dozens of new products in the drug
discovery arena. We preview some of the highlights.
Genevac of the UK has introduced a high performance Model HT-4X
centrifugal evaporator for scientists in the drug discovery and
medicinal chemistry sectors.
Sweden's Nanoxis has secured a financing deal that will help it
develop nanoanalytical platforms - so-called proteinchips - for the
identification of proteins in drug discovery.
The Intraject needle-free injector technology originated by
now-defunct UK company Weston Medical has passed a new series of
feasibility testing at new owner Aradigm.
Packaging is fast becoming an integral part of pharmaceutical
medications and this is leading to more collaborations between the
drug and packaging industries, says Gerresheimer.
