The market for pharmaceutical fine chemicals will remain static
until 2005 and overcapacity will continue to be a problem, predicts
Global Pharmaceutical Fine Chemicals - Industry and Market
Analysis, a new report from Urch Publishing.
Dermatrends, a US drug delivery company, has been awarded a patent
that covers the method of using bases to enhance the permeation of
amine drugs across the skin and could lead to new products for
Alzheimer's and other diseases.
Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that physical
symptoms and neurological damage caused by an inherited
neurodegenerative disease that is similar to Huntingdon's disease
(HD) may be prevented by gene therapy.
In the UK, a groundbreaking partnership between government and
industry has led to the creation of a National Biomanufacturing
Centre, designed to make it easier for fledgling biotechnology
companies to get access to contract manufacturing...
Oxford BiomMedica has entered into a partnership with a US company
to try to overcome the primary obstacles to producing recombinant
proteins in eggs, the low level of expression of the gene
transcript coding for the target protein...
UK business has attacked the government for handing out what it
claims is a £4 billion annual bill as a result of 'sloppy'
environmental laws, report Anthony Fletcher and Phil Taylor.
Finnish chemicals group Kemira has agreed to sell off its fine
chemicals business to a private equity firm, exiting from what it
sees as a non-core sector, reports Phil Taylor.
A new survey has revealed that venture capital investment in health
care ventures rarely goes beyond the money bestowed, and claims
that VCs add value through their expertise are rarely if ever
fulfilled.
The accusations levelled at GlaxoSmithKline and Forest Laboratories
that negative trial results on their products have been buried has
prompted the US industry to set out its own code of practice.
German radio frequency identification technology company KSW
Microtec is gearing up to launch a new RFID label for tracking
supply chain integrity for pharmaceuticals, blood bags and
perishable foods.
Boehringer Ingelheim has been granted a US patent on a way to
disguise real and placebo tablets in a clinical trial - without
having to resort to placing them in larger capsules which may be
difficult for patients to swallow.
With the incidence of drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) and dengue
fever rapidly accelerating worldwide, Novartis has announced the
opening of a non-profit initiative in drug discovery focussing on
advanced biomedical research for...
Qiagen has sold off its embattled nucleic acid synthesis business
in a management buyout, but has retained a minority stake and all
activities relating to RNA interference (RNAi), a potent new drug
discovery tool.
A research team based in Sweden is benefiting from a medical
charity grant of $3 million (€2.5m) that will help it develop a new
cell-based therapy for Parkinson's. Current therapies can only
ameliorate the symptoms of the disease.
Charles River Laboratories has made a $1.5 billion (€1.2bn) bid to
acquire Inveresk Research in a deal that will create a contract
research powerhouse with nearly $1 billion in annual revenues,
writes Phil Taylor.
Tomtec has launched a new multipurpose pipetting workstation that
can handle tiny volumes (down to less than 1 microlitre) and has
features that allows the automation of a number of routine
laboratory liquid handling tasks.
Bionanotechnology company Bioforce hasreached an agreement to field
test its transformational molecular printer, NanoArrayer, at the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, writes Wai Lang
Chu.
New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has continued in his
crusade to investigate pharmaceutical company practice by
requesting information from Forest Laboratories which is accused of
promoting its products for "off-label"...
Predictions that the generics industry will experience further
consolidation - made at the annual meeting of the International
Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance this week - have been swiftly
followed by the news that Sandoz is buying...
Lanxess, the new company in which Germany's Bayer will combine
almost all areas of its chemicals business and parts of its
polymers activities, begins operating as an independent unit today.
West Pharmaceutical Services of the US said yesterday that it is
looking to hive off its drug delivery business and focus on its
primary business in prefilled syringes and components.
Pfizer's position as the number one drugmaker in the world with a
stable of blockbuster medications makes it a prime target for the
drug counterfeiters, and one of its most copied products is the
notorious impotence drug Viagra...
UK companies producing hazardous waste - including the
pharmaceutical industry - are facing a dramatic reduction in the
number of landfill sites in the UK that will accept the material.
A new alliance between Merck & Co and Alnylam, a specialist in
the development of therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi)
could fast-track the first drug in this class though to market.
Pricing pressure on the global market for citric acid has forced
DSM of the Netherlands to lay off staff at its Citrique Belge unit,
reports Phil Taylor.
A compound targetting respiratory syncytial virus - a major threat
to immunocompromised patients - has completed Phase I trials,
raising hopes of the first effective treatment for the virus,
writes Wai Lang Chu.
The market for generic drugs is going to expand from its present
level of $35 billion (€29bn) to $80 billion in 2008, as
cash-strapped healthcare payors turn increasingly to cheaper
options.
GE Healthcare, the life sciences business formed by the merger of
General Electric and Amersham earlier this year, has formed an
alliance with Cellomics to develop a new software suite for its IN
Cell Analyzer product range.
Researchers in the US have taken an important step toward creating
a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease, overcoming the side effects
that held back a prior vaccine for the disease.
A nasal spray which reduces calorie intake, promotes weight loss
and is safe in obese individuals has successfully completed early
clinical trials, raising hopes of a new treatment for obesity.
Dutch drug delivery company OctoPlus has licensed two
biodegradeable polymers to SurModics that can be used to coat
medical devices and deliver drugs into the surrounding tissues.
A new customisable conveyor system, specifically designed to meet
the regulatory demands on packaging in the pharmaceutical industry,
has been launched by AutoPak Engineering.
Germany's Icon Genetics and Israeli firm Protalix are to
collaborate on a way of hiking protein expression in plant cells to
improve their use a production vehicle for recombinant proteins.
Contract research manufacturer Diosynth has forged a joint venture
with a Swiss firm for a technology that could dramatically reduce
the time and cost of developing new cell lines for manufacturing
proteins, writes Phil Taylor.
Chemical giant BASF is set to raise its European price for
polystyrene (PS) by €200 per metric ton from 1 July this year in
response to what it calls totally unsatisfactory margins and
earnings.
Cardinal Health has completed its $2 billion (€1.6bn) tender offer
for intravenous product and services firm Alaris Medical Systems in
a deal that could give Alaris a leg-up that will allow it to
leapfrog its competitors.
A Korean company has developed a new way of making peptide nucleic
acids - a promising drug category that has been limited to date by
an expensive and cumbersome synthetic process.
ML Laboratories of the UK has entered into an agreement to supply
an unnamed pharmaceutical company with its C200 metered dose
inhaler, designed to deliver two drugs at the same time, for use in
a new asthma product.
US-based wholesaler HD Smith has followed the lead of retail giant
Wal-Mart in adopting a system of electronic product code (EPC) and
radiofrequency identification (RFID) to track controlled
pharmaceuticals.
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.
A strong indicator of the potential of a new type of drug to treat
cancer - the Aurora kinase inhibitors - has come with Merck &
Co's decision to invest up to $350 million (€288m) in a license for
the lead compound in the...
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 pharmaceutical industry must tackle the issue of pricing
disparity between countries if it is to avoid having the matter
taken out of its hands by government-mandated price cuts and
parallel imports.
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.
Bolidt Synthetic Products and Systems of the Netherlands has
launched a new synthetic flooring finish designed specifically to
cope with aggressive chemical and pharmaceutical production
environments.
Foreign drugmakers are failing to win ground against their local
counterparts in China, despite investing considerable sums in the
country over the last few years.
