BASF has threatened to relocate research into 'green genetic
engineering' to other countries if German law continues to restrict
R&D into plant biotechnology, with applications as diverse as
crop biomanufacturing of...
Drug maker Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, has entered into a
collaboration with Pharmaplaz to produce and supply Samiritan's
lead compound and pipeline of drugs that includes treatments for
AIDS, Alzheimer's, cancer and cardiovascular...
Franz Humer, president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical
Industries and Associations and chief executive of Roche, has
issued a plea for a concerted effort at improving Europe's science
base at the European Parliament.
The biotech industry managed to raise almost $6 billion during the
third quarter bringing the total raised this year to $20 billion
(€16.2 billion), an increase of $3.2 billion from this time last
year, reflecting the growing confidence...
The first commercial products from chloroplast transformation
technology (CTT) looks a distinct possibility after Chlorogen
signed a joint development and supply agreement with Sigma-Aldrich
to produce four specific proteins in tobacco...
Drug delivery specialists Merrion Biopharma has announced the
opening of new facilities in Ireland, strengthening its position in
the $24 billion oral drug delivery market and reinforcing the
healthy state of the Irish pharmaceutical...
In a dispute with Stanelco Fibre Optics, Bioprogress Technology has
been awarded outright ownership of a master patent giving it
exclusive rights to the process of making capsules from
non-gelatine materials by means of radio frequency...
The European Commission has published details of a new proposed
regulation aimed at stimulating research into drugs for use in
diseases affecting children.
Chemicals group Lanxess - to be spun out of Germany's Bayer next
year - plans to relocate a plant in Texas to China in order to tap
into the strong growth in the market for chemicals there.
Medivative Technologies, a contract manufacturing and process
engineering services supplier to the life sciences and medical
device industries, has just been cleared for operations by the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
A new report into pharmaceutical R&D has identified an emerging
trend favouring outsourcing of discovery research, clinical trials
and formulation manufacturing, providing pressure relief from
consistent, high-growth financial...
Ireland's pharmaceutical industry saw a return to strong growth in
July, after a lengthy period in which the prevailing wisdom was
that the sector had plateaued.
Germany's chemical and pharmaceuticals firm Altana is considering
an acquisition valued at up to €500 million to strengthen its
specialty chemicals division, according to chief executive Nikolaus
Schweickart.
Germany's Girindus is this year's recipient of the Product
Differentiation Award sponsored by consulting firm Frost &
Sullivan for its innovative developments in the commercial
production of oligonucleotides.
This week has seen several companies unveil significant capital
investments in new production and research units, and once again
production facilities for biological drugs - currently said to be
suffering from undercapacity - feature...
Researchers at Staffordshire University in the UK have come up with
a new robotic arm that is fully mobile, has accuracy that rivals
industrial fixed robot arms and could cost significantly less.
Switzerland's Serono, Europe's largest biotechnology company, has
said it will close its InterPharm manufacturing plant in Ness
Ziona, Israel, by the end of year.
Australia's Boron Molecular has set up a US agent, Boron Molecular
that aims to promote and increase the sale and distribution of the
company's range of organoboron compounds throughout the US market.
Constant innovation in the field of microfluidics and uTAS has
enabled lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies to successfully enter the
mainstream commercial market especially impacting on
high-throughput screening of drug candidates, point...
Representatives of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries
presented strong opposition to the concept of biogenerics at a
recent meeting convened by the US Food and Drug Administration. As
expected, their argument centred...
Medarex has announced a global collaboration agreement with Pfizer
that will provide for the discovery and development of up to 50
antibody products over ten years including the creation of fully
human antibody products in a variety...
The world's leading pharmaceutical companies are not doing enough
to help improve the health of countries in the third world. They
will also be completely unprepared to face the increasing demand
for drugs for diseases other...
A bitter-blocking ingredient developed by Linguagen has been backed
for use in foods, beverages and oral pharmaceutical dosage forms by
the country's regulatory authorities.
News that B-MS has dropped out of an agreement to develop Basulin,
an improved formulation of insulin which was the subject of a $165
million deal - including $20 million upfront - between the two
companies last year.
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) has urged the US Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) to move forward to accelerate the
approval of affordable generic versions of biopharmaceutical drugs.
Rumours of the demise of Ireland as a hotbed of pharmaceutical
manufacturing may be premature. Pfizer has just unveiled a plan to
spend €240 million to expand its Dun Laoghaire plant in Dublin.
LGC, the independent analytical laboratory, has set up an
initiative alongside the UK Chemical Industries Association (CIA)
to advise chemical companies how to handle the new REACH
legislation.
Cardinal Health has entered into a licensing agreement that gives
it access to an electrostatic tablet-coating process and drug
delivery technologies developed by Phoqus Pharmaceuticals of the
UK.
A groundbreaking new treatment for psoriasis could be available to
patients in Europe as early as next month, providing the European
Medicines Agency (EMEA) follows the advice of its advisory
committee.
Biotechnology Company, Nucleonics, has filed a request with the
Commissioner of Patents in Australia for Re-Examination, which
questions the validity of Benitec's patent concerning
gene-silencing technology claiming ambiguity...
US life science company Serologicals has entered into a €167.6
million merger with cell signallin specialist Upstate, creating a
significant presence in the preclinical drug screening and target
validation market, the fastest growing...
GlaxoSmithKline are to commission the pharmaceutical industry's
first in-house Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) facility, with
the primary aim of providing information on human metabolite
formation of new drug candidates and...
The pharmaceutical industry has announced it would introduce a
central, accessible database to improve the communication of the
clinical study results of marketed drugs.
The latest study to lament the cost of implementing the European
Union's REACH system has predicted dire consequences for the EU's
Gross Domestic Product, production base and innovative strength.
The US Food and Drug Administration has failed to reach a decision
on approving a growth hormone (hGH) product developed by Novartis'
generics subsidiary Sandoz in what is emerging as a test case for
the development of generic...
China has defended its decision to overturn Pfizer's patent on its
blockbuster drug for erectile dysfunction, Viagra (sildenafil), in
a ruling that was seen as a blow to hopes that the country would
enforce intellectual property...
Cardinal Health says it plans to expand and restructure several of
its facilities around the world after what it describes as
'heightened customer demand for clinical supply services, such as
design, packaging, labelling, storage...
The cumulative effect of patients failing to adhere to their
treatment regimens is costing the pharmaceutical industry in excess
of $30 billion a year, says a new report from Datamonitor which
proffers some solutions to the problem.
The number one drugmaker - Pfizer - has stepped up its legal
campaign against the trade in counterfeit versions of its
top-selling drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), one of the most copied
drugs on the market.
After two difficult years, there are more signals in 2004 that
trends are turning in the economic situation of German
biotechnology companies, according to Prof Peter Stadler, chairman
of the German Association of Biotechnology Industries...
A new approach to treating obesity which blocks brain signals that
control cravings has shown promising results in human subjects
during advanced clinical trials paving the way for further testing
and an eventual launch date.
A team of researchers has issued a plea that that
microarray-derived gene expression data should be available in a
public repository in the same way that gene sequence data is
collated for use by all.
The US Food and Drug Administration has stepped up its activities
in combating drug counterfeiting by bringing charges against drug
wholesalers for failing to carry out measures designed to safeguard
the pharmaceutical supply chain.
UK-based Lock Inspection Systems, a leading manufacturer of
weighing and metal detection system, has announced the opening of a
regional commercial office for Asia-Pacific to meet with growing
demand for its products across the region.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) became the first major drug maker to disclose
details of its clinical drug trials effectively settling a lawsuit
filed by the New York state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who
accused them of concealing information...
The emergence of cases of mad cow disease in North America has not
raised any public health concern from animal-derived medicinal
materials such as bovine blood derivatives and gelatin.
