LINPAC Materials Handling has introduced a reusable container -
designed for pharmaceuticals and food and beverages - that could
allow companies to significantly reduce their shipping costs,
claims the company.
Labtronics has launched the latest addition to its Nexxis LAB suite
of products, promising complete automation to a whole host of
manual procedures as well as security features that make it ideally
suited to the controlled pharmaceutical...
Scientists have discovered a highly effective method to produce
novel aminocoumarins, antibiotics that are useful in the fight
against drug-resistant bacteria that could represent a new
antibacterial class to tackle the growing problem...
Allegations that companies from Europe and Mexico are selling the
ingredient carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) at greatly reduced prices
in the US have prompted an investigation by the country's
International Trade Commission.
The spending for Pharmaceutical-Biotech capital and maintenance
projects in the public and private sectors approached $13 billion
in 2004 (€10.7bn), but companies are often delaying site decisions,
with promises of fast-track permitting...
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.
Researchers have claimed proteome mining could make the discovery
and development of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, inflammation and
infectious disease drugs enormously more effective, fast tracking
protein targets that can be tested...
Scientists have determined the precise molecular structure of a
potential new target for treating prostate cancer, a disease driven
in part by abnormal testosterone activity, which affects one in six
American men.
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...
Faced with a raft of consolidation in the market for generic
pharmaceuticals, Germany's Merck KGaA has entered the fray with an
agreement to acquire most of NM Pharma, the Scandinavian generics
business of top drugmaker Pfizer.
Waters has started shipping its new 'ultra performance liquid
chromatography' (UPLC) system AcQuity, first introduced to the
laboratory sector at the Pittcon exhibition earlier this year and
the winner of the gold award...
A new unit operating at Clariant Pharmaceuticals in Germany will
boost the company's activities in the emerging field of
microreactor technology for the production of pharmaceutical
intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients...
While still a small part of the packaging giant Rexam's overall
business, pharmaceuticals has been instrumental in driving a robust
rise in sales and earnings at the company's plastics division in
the first half of the year.
Chemical giant BASF has increased the price of its styrene polymers
Polystyrene (PS), Terluran (ABS) and Luran (SAN) by €250 per metric
ton in Europe as of 1 September, blaming a continuing erosion in
margins caused by further increases...
A leading consultancy firm has predicted the use of radio frequency
identification (RFID) within the pharmaceutical industry could
prevent most of the 1.25 million adverse reactions and 7,000
patient deaths annually in the United...
A novel, non-radioactive, quantitative cell-based assay, which uses
the In-Cell Western technique, has determined the functional
potency of agonists and antagonists for D2 and D3 receptors,
allowing drug researchers to quantify multiple...
The European Union has granted nearly €25 million to two
large-scale research projects coordinated by the University of
Helsinki in the area of protein kinases, a promising class of new
drug targets.
Potential cost savings from the use of radiofrequency
identification (RFID) will spur increasing use of the technology
within pharmaceutical company supply chains during the next 18
months, according to new research.
A new information database consisting of genes associated with
multidrug resistance in cancerous tumours has been created which
identifies transport protein expression and drug resistance in
cancer cells.
Germany's LION bioscience has made a foray into the market for
cheminformatics software with a new package designed to help
pharmaceutical companies identify, select and priortise compounds,
based on data emerging from the medicinal...
BASF has officially inaugurated a new production plant for the fine
chemicals intermediate citral at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany.
The world-scale plant, which has an annual capacity of 40,000
metric tons, replaces an existing...
Netherlands firm Pharming has acquired the patent portfolio of
former transgenic protein production specialist PPL Therapeutics,
at a stroke enhancing its proprietary position in this emerging
market.
In its first set of financial results after failing to find a buyer
for its pharmaceutical division, Danish packaging firm Superfos has
reported a healthy increase in earnings helped by the resolution of
delivery problems that plagued...
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.
Guava technologies have introduced two new turnkey assays for their
suite of personal cell analysis systems, which intends to make drug
discovery applications in the areas of immunology and oncology more
sensitive and accurate.
The discovery of a naturally occurring protein could play a pivotal
role in the fight against autoimmune diseases with the possibility
of developing this compound into a practicable treatment for
rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which currently...
New legislation handed down by the European Union is having an
impact on suppliers of laboratory equipment that includes
electrical or electronic components, reports Phil Taylor.
The taxane class of cancer drugs has established itself as a
mainstay in the treatment of a range of solid tumours, but to date
there are still only two of these compounds on the market.
Swedish packaging technology company Cypak has raised SEK30 million
(€3.3m) in its fourth major round of funding, and says it will use
the proceeds to accelerate its product development efforts.
WR Grace subsidiary The Separations Group has acquired Alltech
International in a move that raises its standing in the manufacture
and supply of chromatography products even further.
French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Synthelabo on Friday formally
announced the birth of Sanofi-Aventis, the world's third-largest
pharmaceutical company, ranking number one in Europe.
BioProgress, a company specialising in the manufacture of films for
use in drug formulations, has teamed up with encapsulation company
Micap to develop a new type of treatment for those wanting to stop
smoking.
Canada's Chromos Molecular Systems has entered into a collaborative
agreement with Centocor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson &
Johnson, to develop cell lines for the manufacture of biological
drugs.
Australian drug delivery company Acrux is hoping to raise A$30
million (€18m) in a float on the Australian Stock Exchange to
support the development of its novel transdermal technology that
does not require the use of adhesive patches...
Bio-Rad has completed its purchase of MJ GeneWorks, the parent
company of DNA analysis specialist MJ Research, for $32 million,
well short of the $47 million originally forecast.
Researchers in the US and Austria have developed a method that
could vastly improve the ability of atomic force microscopes to
visualise the chemical composition of a sample, follow variations
of the sample, as well as map its topographic...
In a joint project with the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular
Genetics, Germany's Scienion is adapting its nucleic acid chip
technology to handle protein applications. The project aims to
develop antibody chips for the analysis...
In an open letter to the British medical Journal, the director of
the UK Cochrane Centre Sir Iain Chalmers has added his voice to
those calling for complete disclosure of clinical trials by
pharmaceutical companies.
In-Pharmatechnologist's periodic round-up of personnel moves in the
pharmaceutical sector includes a change in leadership at the
Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and a new
managing director at tabletting and...
Companies from Europe, the US and Japan have announced the
construction of new facilities this month, suggesting that despite
a difficult operating environment big pharma is still making
significant capital investments.
Genex Pharmaceutical has unveiled a plan to buy fellow Chinese
company Tianjin Zhongjin Pharmaceutical, one of the world's largest
producers of vitamin B1.
The potential to use a phenomenon known as RNA interference (RNAi)
to selectively switch off genes associated with disease has
captured the attention of drug developers, but as with antisense
before it, delivering the agents is the...
Drug delivery specialist SkyePharma has decided to press ahead with
the development of new drug products based on an encapsulation
technology developed by fellow UK company Micap.
A soon-to-be published reference book that highlights the
compliance of Wal-Mart's suppliers with its RFID model says that
the system is set to change the rules of the global supply chain.
Two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis can be time-consuming and
labour intensive, but its value to proteomics research means that
the market for these products will more than double by 2010.
Catalyst company Chiral Quest has launched a new product,
C3-TunePhos, designed for use in the synthesis of a range of drugs,
including the cholesterol-lowering statin class.
