Laboratory researchers in Singapore have created the first battery
that generates electricity from urine. This new battery could solve
the problem of finding a power source as small and as cheap to
fabricate as the disposable healthcare...
Portuguese contract manufacturer Hovione has expanded the range of
services it can offer its pharmaceutical customers with the
addition of a new suite of spray drying (lyophilisation) systems in
Europe and the US.
Troubled generic drug manufacturer Able Laboratories has conceded
defeat in its bid to get products back onto the market and elected
to sell off the assets of the business.
Who's making what for whom? In-PharmaTechnologist provides its
periodic round-up of new deals and developments in the
pharmaceutical contract manufacturing sector.
Germany's Bruker AXS is to acquire privately held French company
Socabim, a company focused on advanced X-ray materials research and
analysis software.
French chemicals company Rhodia has effectively written off the
value of its troubled Rhodia Pharma Solutions division in its
second quarter accounts, giving it a book value of zero.
US researchers have made a bold claim by announcing that after
successful laboratory experiments, growth, repair and return of
nerve cell function has been achieved. If substantiated, the
discovery is set to open up a plethora of...
Expression Analysis introduces a new technique that is set to
improve the performance of the Affymetrix Genechip. The technique,
which eliminates the effect caused by potentially invariant probes
within a probe set, will provide cost...
Researchers have discovered a new tumour defence system that
interferes with the cells that are trying to kill them. These
results raise the possibility of new drug targets for cancer such
as those that may transport free fatty acids...
Diosynth Biotechnology, the contract manufacturing subsidiary of
Dutch chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Akzo Nobel, has won a new
contract to manufacture a cardiovascular imaging agent due to start
Phase III testing in 2006.
Cambrex has launched a new system for stripping out bacterial
endotoxin from protein production systems that it claims is
associated with less product waste than current procedures.
A grant totalling more than $32 million to advance the development
of innovative sequencing lab technologies to reduce the cost of DNA
sequencing and expand the use of genomics in biomedical research
has been awarded by The National...
Capsugel, the gelatine capsule manufacturing subsidiary of number
one drugmaker Pfizer, has expanded its equipment product offering
to its pharmaceutical customers by buying the powder micro-dosing
technology Xcelodose from Meridica.
A new genome sequencing technique that claims to be 100 times
faster than previous technologies has been developed by 454 Life
Sciences Corporation. The technique is the first new technology for
genome sequencing to be developed and...
Dowpharma has announced the addition of an oligonucleotide
synthesizer for its manufacturing of nucleic acid medicines. The
new oligo synthesizer is said to increase speed and flexibility in
producing clinical quantities for customers.
Millipore introduces its latest filter integrity test instrument
that allows biopharmaceutical production to conduct on-site bubble
point, diffusion and HydroCorrSM tests on disk, cartridge and
tangential flow filtration (TFF) filters.
The Hovione Group revealed its yearly figures for 2005, which
revealed that sales grew by 8 per cent. The company's performance
is in contrast to the pharma fine chemicals sector, which between
2002 and 2004 had an average 14...
Cambrex has recorded a gain in the second quarter of this year,
with growth in its Bioproducts and Human Health segments. The
performances overshadow the company's troublesome BioPharma
division, indicative of a market for outsourced...
Lab research scientists are being urged to drop their paper
notebooks and go electronic with Infotrievea's new management
software and the company's online research centre, reports Ahmed
ElAmin.
Freeman Technology introduces a new accessory for its rheometer,
which enables users to extend the range of applications to include
those for which only very small amounts of sample are available.
This includes pharmaceutical actives...
According to a recent survey, the pharma industry spent an
estimated $1.25 billion for each new molecular entity (NME)
approved by the FDA in 2004. The figure represents the second
consecutive year in which this figure has declined...
Germany's Evotec is to provide a broad range of pharmaceutical
discovery and chemical development services to Procter & Gamble
Pharmaceuticals in a lift for its outsourcing business.
Swiss chemicals firm and contract manufacturer Lonza fulfilled its
promise of stronger financial results in the first half of 2005,
with profits coming in at the lower end of the forecast range, but
still on target, reports Phil Taylor.
Japan's Kirin Brewery Co has bought Hematech of the US, acquiring
the latter's core technology for the production of bovine-derived
human polyclonal antibodies which could be useful in the
development of a range of human-use...
An improved new statistical method developed by genome researchers,
is set to streamline the computation required to identify the
potential locations in the genome, as well as linking more gene
expression traits to two loci.
Buck Systems, part of Niro Pharma Systems, has launched a
laboratory-scale blender that allows users to analyse powders as
they are being blended and monitor changing powder characteristics,
achieving the ideal blend as quickly and...
Chiron says it will be unable to supply any Begrivac influenza
vaccine to markets outside the US during the 2005/6 flu season,
just days after admitting it has sterility problems at a
manufacturing plant.
Lab and process equipment company Sartorius closed the first half
of 2005 with increases in sales revenue and earnings, with a good
performance by its filter business driven by demand from the
biopharmaceutical industry.
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals has opened its new vaccine manufacturing
facility in which commercial quantities of StaphVAX [Staphylococcus
aureus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine] will be produced. StaphVAX
is currently in phase III development...
Eksigent Technologies launches its liquid chromatography system for
nanospray mass spec analysis that allows sample loading at higher
flow rates, making it suitable for proteomics and biomarker
discovery applications.
Sanofi Pasteur is to increase US influenza vaccine capacity as
plans to construct a new plant get underway. The new facility is
expected to be up and running in time for the 2009 influenza season
creating more than 100 new production...
Oral drug delivery specialists, Merrion Pharmaceuticals, have been
issued with a patent that covers new peptide compounds which can be
physically or chemically complexed with an active substance, either
a drug or a biological, in...
Questcor Pharmaceuticals has announced the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has approved its application to transfer the
manufacturing process of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)
in the company's adrenocorticotropic...
The new company has been launched to provide laboratory-based drug
discovery and clinical trials services to the pharmaceutical and
biotech industries. Lab21 services include lead identification and
optimisation, resistance profiling,...
Invitrogen has opened a bioproduction facility in Australia to make
bovine sera products and reagents used in basic research and the
production of vaccines and biotherapeutic drugs.
German biotechnology company ICON Genetics is to start field trials
of a transgenic tobacco crop that will be used to produce an enzyme
with potential as an active pharmaceutical ingredient and as a
catalyst for the manufacture of...
US drugmaker Chiron is facing a significant shortfall in the volume
of influenza vaccine it will be able to ship to markets outside the
US as a result of sterility problems uncovered at another of its
manufacturing plants, reports...
US-based laboratory equipment specialist VWR International has
boosted its presence in Europe via the acquisition of Technical
Service Lab, a Dutch calibration and validation company.
A particle finder, which can determine particle size, number and
shape within 15 seconds, has been launched by German equipment
supplier rap.ID, which believes such technology could solve the
problem of foreign particle contamination...
A new in silico technique for generating enhanced predictions for
ADME/Tox research could have new implications in developing novel
drug techniques in combating drug-resistant infectious diseases and
cancer.
US firms Large Scale Biology Corp and privately-held Planet
Biotechnology have expanded their biomanufacturing program to
extract and purify the latter's lead product, CaroRx, a plant-made
antibody to control dental caries.
Researchers in the US have uncovered the mechanism underlying a
genetic tendency for some patients to be more susceptible to side
effects of drugs than others.
A disposable flask bioreactor designed by Swiss company Integra
Biosciences has been shown to boost cell densities in mammalian
cell culture by a factor of 10 in a study.
Cardinal Health has completed the manufacturing of an antibody
destined for human clinical trials, using a cell line that was made
with its patented GPEx (Gene Product Expression) technology.
Millipore continued its shopping trip for new businesses last week
with the purchase of NovAseptic, a Swedish company specialising in
aseptic processing equipment used in the production of
pharmaceutical and biologic drugs.
A major food equipment manufacturer has announced plans to expand
into pharmaceutical equipment and processing, following its
purchase from Italian owners CIR last month.
