Adjuvants - substances that are added to vaccines to intensify the
immune response to an antigen which have been used for over 80
years - are beginning to be understood by researchers who believe
more effective adjuvants can be designed.
AstraZeneca's anticoagulant Exanta (ximelagatran) has been launched
in Germany, its first market worldwide, for the prevention of blood
clots in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery.
Canada's Generex Biotechnology has presented new evidence that its
RapidMist device can deliver proteins and peptides through the
lining of the mouth, potentially doing away with the need for
injections.
The US subsidiary of India's Ranbaxy has launched a cephalosporin
antibiotic in a chewable tablet formulation designed to be easier
to take by patients who struggle with tablets or capsules.
The world's largest centre for human embryonic stem cell research,
which will develop treatments for a range of currently incurable
diseases, is to be opened by Cambridge University in the UK.
Sigma-Aldrich has boosted its capacity to supply pharmaceutical
ingredients with the purchase of Tetrionics, a company with a
strong position in the high growth area of high potency and
cytotoxic compounds.
Unigene, which specialises in developing oral versions of
injectable drugs, has received a $4 million (€3.3m) milestone
payment from pharmaceutical major GlaxoSmithKline for starting
clinical trials of an osteoporosis drug.
The first clinical trial of a peptide that mimics the cellular
adhesion molecule NCAM is due to take place in the UK in the third
quarter of this year, bringing a potential new treatment for
Alzheimer's disease a step closer,...
A new treatment for cancer that destroys tumours by heating them
from the inside has shown promise in animal studies conducted at
Rice University in the US, writes Phil Taylor.
Micap, a UK company specialising in using yeast cells to
encapsulate drugs, has entered into a collaboration with leading
medicated chewing gum company Fertin that should extend the range
of active ingredients that can be delivered...
Researchers at Harvard have discovered why cholesterol-lowering
drugs do not have identical effects on patients. These medicines on
average cut heart attacks by a third and with sales of $26 billion
dollars and used by 20 million...
Irish start-up Celtic Catalysts believes it can tackle two of the
major obstacles holding back the use of catalysts to make chiral
drugs - the strong patent positions of existing players and
difficulties in scale-up - with its platform...
Hovione of Portugal has teamed up with drug delivery company CyDex
to develop improved formulations of drugs that have lost or will
soon lose patent protection.
The development of an in silico model of the non-obese
diabetic (NOD) mouse, the primary animal model used by researchers
to study type 1 diabetes, is set to enhance understanding of the
disease and radically advance pharmaceutical...
A biomechanical pathway which is key to the specific allergic
response suffered by those with asthma has been shown to induce a
specific enzyme which if neutralised, could eliminate the
inflammation and hyperresposiveness of the airway,...
The safety of thiomersal, a preservative that is used in vaccines,
has come under scrutiny once again after a study found that it
causes damage to nerve cells in newborn mice.
Scottish biotech firm CXR biosciences and Edinburgh's Roslin
Institute have entered into a collaboration with Geron to develop a
new technique that promises to reduce the need to test drugs on
animals.
French ingredients company Roquette has been granted a US patent
for a way to make mannitol a suitable carrier excipient - or
pulverulent - for active pharmaceutical ingredients in hard filled
capsules, reports Phil Taylor.
Researchers have isolated a protein that appears to be behind the
curious phenomenon that severe dietary restruction can extend the
lifespan of some organisms. The protein is thought to control
whether a mammal stores fat or sheds...
This week has seen three companies put forward different solutions
to the topical issue of improving the yield of proteins and nucleic
acids made by biomanufacturing technologies.
Despite advances made in sustained delivery drug delivery
technologies in recent years, a problem still persists in trying to
obtain controlled release of a wide variety of medications that
have only a narrow absorption window in...
Drug therapies that focus on the vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF) in treating advanced or metastasised cancer represents a
huge slice of drug treatments currently in development. This
molecular target paves the way for...
Neuro3d has started trials of its orally active phosphodiesterase-4
(PDE4) inhibitor in depression, resurrecting the use of this class
of drug in this indication.
Recently formed US company WaferGen has acquired licenses to three
labs-on-a-chip developed at the Technical University of Delft in
the Netherlands that could be on the market in the next two years.
In the build up to the American Society of Clinical Oncology's
(ASCO) annual conference, drug companies from around the world have
been showcasing potential drug treatments, with a number of new
molecular targets for cancer,...
Drug re-engineering company Eiffel Technologies will add to its
existing project in improving insulin delivery with the start of
clinical trials of an in-house product early next year, writes
Wai Lang Chu.
The Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD) of US chemicals firm
Solutia is planning a charge into the market for supplying drug
conjugates, which are becoming more and more common in the
treatment of diseases such as cancer.
Researchers have taken a step forward in the development of a
system for making unlimited quantities of antibody-based drugs for
human applications in cattle.
Canadian company MIV Therapeutics has been awarded a US patent for
a coating technology for medical devices and drug encapsulation
based on hydroxyapatite, one of the major constituents of bone.
Australian company pSivida is on the brink of starting clinical
trials of a silicon-based nanomaterial that could find broad
applications across drug and vaccine delivery, diagnostics and
tissue engineering, writes Phil Taylor.
A new approach to treating obesity that destroys fat tissue using a
targeted peptide drug has shown promising results in mice and will
move on to non-human primate studies this summer, reports Phil
Taylor.
Germany's Xerion Pharmaceuticals has discovered a protein that
seems to be intrinsically involved in the spread of cancers and
could be a new target for drug therapies. The finding is also a
validation of the firm's Xstream...
Belgium's Opperbas Holding has started a mid-stage clinical trial
of a new formulation of factor VIII - used to treat haemophilia A -
that should cut the number of injections that sufferers of the
bleeding disease need to endure.
Formulatrix and Bruker AXS have pooled their resources to speed up
the process of high-throughput protein crystallography, a key
process in the identification of protein structure and function.
German generics producer Schwarz Pharma has licensed rights to a
drug delivery technology developed by US company Lipocine, to
revamp its pipeline in the face of competitive threats to its
biggest product.
Occam International of the Netherlands has licensed its coating
technology to Xtent, a company specialising in the development of
cardiovascular stents that deliver drugs directly into the blood
vessels.
Banner Pharmaceuticals has developed a new oral delivery
formulation that is designed to make it easier to dose drugs to
children and the elderly and to take medications on the go,
writes Phil Taylor.
India's Ajanta Pharma has said that it may re-enter the market for
bulk manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs),
despite pulling out of the sector in the late 1990s.
US drug delivery company SCOLR has been knocked back by the
decision by one of its partners not to go ahead with a project
based on its technology. But the company insists it will go it
alone in tackling the pharmaceutical sector.
Researchers in Finland and Belgium have developed a new way of
making plant-derived compounds in cell cultures that should cut the
cost of manufacturing a raft of pharmaceuticals, including drugs
for cancer.
Pharming of the Netherlands has modified two of its commercial
relationships in a move that should accelerate its activities in
developing therapeutic proteins that are made in transgenic
animals, writes Phil Taylor.
New biotechnology processes are poised to change the economics of
manufacturing drugs, creating the potential for delivering both
affordable medicines to patients in the developing world and laying
the foundation for new markets.
A new generation of potent, targetted vaccines for cancer could be
the offspring of a marriage between two technologies developed at
European biotechnology companies Avidex and Active Biotech.
The needle-free injector technology underpinning PowderJect, the
drug delivery company which shot onto the biotechnology scene in
the mid-1990s and was snapped up by Chiron of the US last year,
will form the foundation of a new therapeutic...
DSM Anti-Infectives, the world's largest producer of antibiotics,
is planning to expand a manufacturing plant for a key intermediate
used in the manufacture of cephalosporins that will make it the
largest producer of the compound...
A prototype chip-based laboratory developed by a German company
could reduce the time it takes to carry out the DNA amplification
required for polymerase chain reactions to five minutes.
The European Commission has mapped out its strategy to keep the
European Union at the forefront of research into nanotechnology, a
position that is in danger of being eroded, and plans to double its
funding in the sector writes Phil...
Swiss contract manufacturing company Lonza has licensed a
technology that makes it possible to make peptide drugs that are
longer and have a more complex structure than is possible using
conventional techniques, reports Phil Taylor.
Germany's atugen, a specialist in RNA interference technologies for
switching off genes, has demonstrated the feasiblity of delivering
a small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based drug and achieving a
physiological response in animals.
Computer giant IBM claims to have identified seven key technologies
that will drive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry over the
next decade, raise the quality of development and manufacturing
processes and slash the pre-launch...