In an attempt to counter competition in generic active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from Asian manufacturers, BASF
has decided to downscale production at its Minden production site,
implementing a restructuring programme that...
Drug giant Pfizer is claiming victory in defending the world's most
prescribed branded medicine for treating hypertension after a US
court ruled that Dutch drugmaker Synthon's generic copy of Norvasc
(amlodipine besylate)...
The Pharsight Corporation has announced it has entered into the
biggest single project workplan in the company's history utilising
its drug-disease modelling, meta-data analysis and model
visualisation services.
Researchers believe that the discovery of enzymes that play a key
role in building membranes of disease-causing bacteria has ended a
25-year mystery and paves the way for new drug development against
certain types of bacteria.
Drug giant Eli Lilly has joined forces with Suven Life Sciences in
a deal that will focus on pre-clinical research of molecules in the
therapeutic area of central nervous system (CNS) disorders.
Large global contract research organisation, SFBC International,
has changed its name to PharmaNet Development Group in a bid to
make a fresh start and turnaround the troubled business after a
long period of bad press, legal difficulties...
California-based Synteract has scored a clinical trial management
contract from Northwest Biotherapeutics to bring one of the world's
first personalised medicines into a late stage clinical trial.
The recovery that has taken packaging and processing machinery
company IMA to profitability in 2006 has continued, helped by new
opportunities in the biotech sector and a strong growth in
generics.
PPD International has launched a new software system that it claims
can speed up the review time of safety and endpoint-driven data
from large-scale clinical trials or registries.
Seattle drug firm ZymoGenetics has taken Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)
to court for infringement of its fusion protein technology patents
by several products, including arthritis medication Orencia
(abatacept).
Bruised by Novartis's snub over a $600m (€466m) vaccine plant,
Maryland has commissioned a study on what more the state can do to
attract a major cell culture vaccine manufacturing facility there.
Germany's Merck has announced its biggest investment in
pharmaceuticals in its 338-year-old history, as its top-selling
oncology drug Erbitux (cetuximab) has driven the company to
allocate €190m for the construction of its first...
PerkinElmer has released its line of gas chromatography products,
which claims to deliver the fastest injection-to-injection time in
conventional gas chromatography, reducing cycle time and increasing
sample throughput.
US generic drugmaker Mylan has agreed to spend around $736m
(€573.4m) to acquire a controlling stake in Matrix, an Indian
manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and solid
oral dosage forms, as relentless competition...
A new report has suggested the US demand for enzymes for
pharmaceutical and biocatalyst sectors will trigger market growth
of 6.9 per cent per year reaching $2.2bn (€1.7bn) in 2010.
Scientists believe they have discovered a novel way in treating
people suffering from anthrax poisoning, which could overcome the
problem of antibiotic resistance that is becoming increasingly
common in southern and Eastern Europe...
In the first drug master file (DMF) approval of its kind, the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the sale of
metformin hydrochloride tablets which are produced by an Indian
company using a pharmaceutical formulation...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
has awarded Nastech Pharmaceuticals a development grant for RNAi
therapeutics to prevent and treat influenza.
Jacobs Engineering Group has inked a new contract with Boehringer
Ingelheim to provide technical and construction services for its
new bulk active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility being
built in Petersburg, Virginia, US.
Canadian contract manufacturer Patheon has teamed up with specialty
pharmaceutical firm Depomed to offer its clients a controlled
release formulation which can grant their drugs increased
bioavailability and less frequent dosing.
Industrial enzyme maker Novozymes is seeking to strengthen its
presence in the biopharmaceutical market by offering to acquire
Australian biotechnology firm Gropep for AUD83.6m (€49.6m), eager
to become a supplier of recombinant ingredients...
Biopharmaceutical firm Altus has asked contract manufacturer Althea
to produce Phase III quantities of a crystallised formulation of
human growth hormone (hGH) which can be administered subcutaneously
weekly instead of daily.
UK drug discovery company, Peakdale Molecular, has introduced its
collection of drug-like molecules targeted towards specific
receptor families achieving drug selectivity to modulate
therapeutically relevant signalling pathways.
Researchers have identified a protein that is thought to defend the
intestinal against microbial invaders offering new insights into
how the intestine fends off pathogens and potentially leading to
new inflammatory bowel disease medications.
Evotec and CHDI have formed a strategic partnership, which aims to
research and develop treatments for Huntington Disease (HD), a
genetic disorder that causes programmed degeneration of brain cells
and loss of intellectual faculties.
Charles River Laboratories becomes the ninth contract research
organisation (CRO) to open up a new pathology facility within the
Chicago Technology Park (CTP), reinforcing the emerging outsourcing
trend in pharmaceutical discovery...
Thermo Electron has reported an operating profit growth of 26 per
cent to $143.2m (€111.2m) and boosted its profit margin by three
percentage points to 20 per cent in its second quarter results.
Fisher Scientific has reported a second-quarter pre-tax profit jump
of 31 per cent to $146.1m (€113.4m), reflecting the success of
recent acquisitions and operating initiatives.
Difficulties in identifying tablets have emerged as a major issue
in a recent US survey of 150 pharmacists who are warning drugmakers
that the lack of distinct appearance in pills leads in dispensing
errors that cost more than 7,000...
Contract research organisations (CROs) are slashing clinical trial
times by an average of 30 per cent and the outsourcing trend is
showing no signs of slowing, as the pharma industry continues to
face rising pressure to reduce time-to-market...
Looking for $45m (€35m) in savings, Teva has decided to abandon its
drug manufacturing plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico, as it scrambles to
adjust capacity seven months after its acquisition of Ivax.
Strong demand for anti-cancer cytotoxic active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs) has led Nicholas Piramal (NPIL) Pharma to
upgrade infrastructure and hire more staff at its high potency
substances (HPS) facility in Grangemouth.
Sentry Logistic Solutions has launched an additional service,
offering to build customised drug storage facilities for
pharmaceutical companies with special needs.
Despite its consolidation, the competitive consumable sector still
offers potential for rapid growth and better profits in the
biopharmaceutical industry, while contract bioprocessing services
will be increasingly in demand, according...
Rexam, the world's largest beverage can maker, has bought Indian
pharmaceutical packaging firm Truepack for £5m (€7.3m), hungry for
a slice of the country's growing pharma market.
Researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of a new drug for
treating infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria
representing the first drug of its kind to be FDA approved in two
decades.
For the first time Merck has opened the doors of its
under-construction manufacturing plant in North Carolina to public
officials, boasting it will eventually contribute about two-thirds
of its annual live-virus vaccine production.
US scientists think they have come up with a novel test that
indicates how a patient with early-stage lung cancer will respond
to chemotherapy, giving the opportunity to tailor treatment to the
individual.
As it continues to expand, Decision News Media is currently seeking
two new journalists to join its Pharmaceutical & Science News
Group in Central London.
Global drug development spending will top $105bn (€81.5bn) by 2010
and 40 per cent of this business is expected to be dished out in
outsourcing contracts - with contract research organisations (CROs)
emerging triumphant.
A survey of eleven production plants of major drugmakers has
revealed considerable variation in capacity utilisation, with the
top performers being those who embrace automation and spend little
on non-core activities.
Instrumentation provider ABgene has launched the first automated
device for the opening and closing of screw caps on sample tubes
that it claims is three times faster than the manual method.
Buoyed by lucrative biodefense contracts, Emergent BioSolutions has
showcased a new large-scale vaccine production facility in Michigan
which it will use to make Biothrax, the only vaccine approved in
the US for the prevention of...
Generex has registered a new patent in the US that covers broad
claims for the delivery of macromolecules via the buccal cavity of
the mouth, further safeguarding its RapidMist drug delivery
technology which it uses to spray insulin...
Bionas has launched a product for in vitro profiling the
metabolic activity of cells to understand cellular function that
could prove highly useful in drug discovery and development.
Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease are one step closer to
receiving Novartis's Exelon as a transdermal patch instead of a
capsule following an international clinical study which showed that
the new delivery method...
A cartridge shortage that forced Amylin and Eli Lilly to ask 40,000
physicians in the US to stop prescribing their injectable diabetes
drug Byetta to new patients has come to an end thanks to a boost in
production by contract manufacturer...
Newly-approved pearlescent pigments that can produce sparkly
metallic, satiny and shimmery finishes on drug coatings could be
used as one additional step in the fight against counterfeiting,
say its developers, EMD Chemicals - part...
