In the wake of its £1.53 billion acquisition of UK biotechnology
company Celltech, Belgium's UCB has disclosed a near 60 per cent
hike in R&D funding for 2005.
GE Infrastructure, a business unit of General Electric, is to
acquire US water purification and wastewater treatment company
Ionics for around $1.1 billion (€813m), plus the assumption of
debt.
RNA interference specialist Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has made
progress in its collaboration with US pharma major Merck & Co,
with the latter making a $7 million milestone payment as a result.
Informatics company Tripos has entered into a definitive agreement
to acquire privately held Optive Research, which develops software
for computer-assisted molecular discovery.
Pharming, a Dutch company specialising in the production of
proteins from transgenic animals, has acquired an Australian
company to shore up its patent position and technology portfolio in
this area.
Tepnel announced it had completed the acquistion of Diaclone
Research adding customisable monoclonal antibodies (mABs),
complimentary reagents and ELISA test kits to its range of life
sciences instrumentation and services.
Cell culture equipment company Integra Biosciences has launched a
new roller system designed to improve the cultivation of adherent
and suspension cells.
In-PharmaTechnologist.com's periodic round-up of developments in
the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector sees Schering-Plough
expanding in Japan and plant news from Germany, Mexico and Vietnam.
UK-based Microplate manufacturers Porvair Sciences, adds to its
range of microporous products that are suitable for a range of
industrial and domestic applications including drug discovery,
protein purification and high throughput...
The first study to confirm the potential of a new class of drug for
neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's could herald a
breakthrough in drug treatment for a disease that affects up to 4
million adults in the United...
Arena Pharmaceuticals has entered into collaboration with
Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical to develop a new class of oral drugs
for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Arena can expect to net $300
million (€224 million) excluding milestone...
The ongoing controversy concerning certain drugs and a link to
heart trouble gained further momentum after the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) issued a warning for the pain reliever
naproxen after researchers found an increased...
At the CPhI meeting this year, many contract manufacturing
organisations (CMOs) trumpeted their new investments in capacity,
despite the prevailing wisdom that the pharmaceutical sector is
over-served at present.
Irish biopharma firm Alltracel Pharmaceuticals has reinforced its
position in the dissolvable film market with a reverse takeover of
London firm Westone Products.
Separation and filtration giant Pall has completed its $32 million
acquisition of BioSepra, a division specialising in protein
purification technologies, from Ciphergen.
Companies in the European life sciences industry could save
significant sums of money, up to 5 per cent of turnover in some
cases, by considering tax implications in their supply chain
strategy, according to a report from consultants...
US drug delivery company Inyx has signed a definitive agreement to
acquire Aventis Pharmaceuticals Puerto Rico, part of the French
Sanofi-Aventis group.
Tekni-Films, part of the Tekni-Plex group, has introduced a new
blister package modeling system to support pharmaceutical
manufacturers in the development of packaging for oral solid dosage
forms.
Norwegian drug delivery specialist OptiNose has raised €4.5 million
in a new financing that will support the development of its nasal
delivery system, designed to hike efficiency over current devices.
Inpharmatica has announced a discovery collaboration with Novartis
Institutes for Biomedical Research which is to focus on identifying
protein targets for Novartis' drug discovery projects.
The safety of cox-2 inhibitors was plunged into further uncertainty
after Pfizer released details of trials that found an increased
risk of heart problems with patients taking its painkiller
Celebrex. The drug is in the same class...
A new approach to prevent infection of West Nile and dengue fever
may be on the horizon after a US team identified interactions
involving the alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV). The virus is a close
relative of the flaviviruses that cause...
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has announced the submission of a global
registration dossier for its investigational antibiotic Tygacil
(tigecycline), a new class of treatment for intra-abdominal and
skin infections.
France's Flamel Technologies has enrolled the first patient in a
clinical trial of its Medusa drug delivery technology, used to
develop sustained-release formulations of therapeutic proteins.
DiscoveRx and B-Bridge International are to venture into the
Japanese assay market that aims to provide Japanese researchers
with a homogenous GPCR and Kinase assay platform for drug
development and screening.
Degussa Homogeneous Catalysts, an internal start-up company
operating as part of the Degussa chemical group, introduced a new
family of ligands at the CPhI meeting.
Researchers at AstraZeneca in Sweden have been granted a US patent
on a new film coating for tablets that can be carried out in
water-based conditions, doing away with the need for use of organic
solvent-based systems.
Researchers at the University of Derby in the UK are appealing for
industrial partners to join their research programme into tackling
problems associated with misleading medicine labels, difficult drug
names and package designs.
Codexis has signed a research collaboration agreement with generics
company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to develop improved
processes for the manufacturing of a currently marketed fermented
pharmaceutical product.
Cerestar has responded to the rising demand for starch-based
excipients by extending its range of Sorbitol products, two
non-animal and non-synthetic based formulations that offers a
carrier platform for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Flarer, a Swiss company specialising in methods of drug delivery,
has developed a new chewing gum production technology that extends
the range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that can be
delivered via this route.
Applera suffered a setback to its European sector after the
European Patent Office revoked its patent covering real-time PCR
thermal cycler technology.
Genevac has launched a brand new evaporation system aimed at the
molecular biology market. The technology marks a significant
departure for the company as its products have been focussed on
drug discovery chemistry until now.
Japan's Insent has developed an artificial tongue - said to be the
first of its kind - that can be used to analyse the taste profiles
of pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages.
Miltenyi Biotec strengthened its presence in the Asia-Pacific Rim
by opening new headquarters in Suntec City, Singapore. The magnetic
cell separation and cellular therapy specialists already have a
presence in several European countries...
Merck & Co, still reeling from the impact of pulling its
painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib) from the market, is to slash its staff
by 5,100 positions in a bid to save hundreds of millions of dollars
by the end of the year.
The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) has set up a new
umbrella group to represent the fine chemicals industry and provide
forum to tackle the volatile environment facing the sector.
Cell-based assays are set to become the preferred choice of
screening, potentially overtaking more traditional approaches that
include traditional enzyme- or antibody-based assays.
Clariant's pharmaceutical fine chemicals business announced a
series of upgrades to its manufacturing facilities around the
world, headed by a new push into contract manufacture of controlled
substances.
A non-animal alternative to gelatin capsules made its European
entry as Capsugel used the CpHi show to launch the latest addition
to its range of two-piece capsules. The product claims to offer
customers better control with no slow...
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments has launched a new high-throughput
gas chromatograph injection system that is designed to allow GCs to
easily switch from one task to another.
The Ministry of Commerce in China has that it plans to review the
five-year programme of anti-dumping duties it set on catechol
imports from the European Union.
UK company Accentus has developed a technology that promises to
halve the cost of carrying out high-throughput crystallography,
used in polymorph screening and salt selection as part of the
process of pharmaceutical form selection...
Busy times for personnel in the pharmaceutical technology sector,
with a series of new appointments at the senior level in
ingredients, separation and drug delivery companies.
A study into the price of orphan drugs in the EU revealed that
access to treatments for patients with rare disorders can vary by
as much as 70 per cent within individual EU member states.
A novel lead-finding, series-switching technology, which can
accelerate selection of leads for targets based on molecular fields
rather than molecular structure, has been launched.
A worldwide non-exclusive co-development and marketing agreement
has been formed between Definiens and BioImage with the aim of
delivering tailored applications to the high content screening
(HCS) market.
