Lanxess, the fine chemicals unit that is due to be spun out of
Germany's Bayer next year, will be headed by Axel Westerhaus,
currently in charge of the group's polyethers business in the US.
German generics producer Schwarz Pharma has licensed rights to a
drug delivery technology developed by US company Lipocine, to
revamp its pipeline in the face of competitive threats to its
biggest product.
Occam International of the Netherlands has licensed its coating
technology to Xtent, a company specialising in the development of
cardiovascular stents that deliver drugs directly into the blood
vessels.
Swedish drug discovery technology company Cellectricon has raised a
total of SEK 53 million (€5.8 million) following the completion of
its latest Series B financing round, writes Wai Lang Chu.
Banner Pharmaceuticals has developed a new oral delivery
formulation that is designed to make it easier to dose drugs to
children and the elderly and to take medications on the go,
writes Phil Taylor.
An unnamed European pharmaceutical company is using time
temperature indicators (TTI) to ensure heart valves used in human
heart transplants are kept at the optimum temperature.
India's Ajanta Pharma has said that it may re-enter the market for
bulk manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs),
despite pulling out of the sector in the late 1990s.
Researchers in the US are testing a new way to treat HIV by
destroying the virus as it enters host cells. The treatment is
based on the genetic manipulation of the immune cells that HIV
infects to enable them to destroy the virus.
Dowpharma has unveiled plans to consolidate its biopharmaceutical
custom process development activities to a single site in the US
that it says will make it easier to respond to its clients' needs.
US drug delivery company SCOLR has been knocked back by the
decision by one of its partners not to go ahead with a project
based on its technology. But the company insists it will go it
alone in tackling the pharmaceutical sector.
Applied Biosystems has launched a mouse genome microarray that can
be used to detect the expression of genes, even when they are
expressed at very low levels.
IBM has launched a new software package designed to make it easier
for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotecnology
companies to cope with the compliance requirements of the US Food
and Drug Administration.
Japanese drug companies Yamanouchi and Fujisawa have said that the
entity to be created via their merger next year will be called
Astellas Pharma, drawing on a Japanese word that means 'shine on
tomorrow'.
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) earlier
his month in China may have been contained, but it serves as a
timely reminder of the need for continued efforts to develop drugs
and vaccines for the virus, reports...
In an unusual move, Finnish science park Medipolis has set up a new
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) pilot plant to take advantage of
the growing demand for biopharmaceutical production capacity.
Ministers at the Council of the European Union dashed hopes that an
EU-wide 'Community Patent' might be in the offing by voting against
the measure at last week's EU Competitiveness Council meeting.
UK-based chemistry specialist Syrris has developed a new
microreactor that, it claims, can speed up the optimisation of
process reactions used in the drug industry.
The use of animal testing in pharmaceutical research and
development is to be revised after the UK government announced it
was to establish a national centre to reduce use and raise
standards of animal welfare.
Belgian group UCB, fresh from making an offer for UK biotech
company Celltech, has announced plans to sell off its chemicals
unit and become a pharmaceuticals pure play, reports Phil
Taylor.
The use of animal testing in pharmaceutical research and
development is to be revised after the UK government announced it
was to establish a national centre to reduce use and raise
standards of animal welfare, writes Wai Lang Chu.
Respironics, a US-based company specialising in sleep and
ventilation products, is to make a $44.6 million (€37.3m) cash
offer for Profile Therapeutics of the UK.
The world's only stem cell bank was officially inaugurated last
week with the deposit of the first human embryonic stem cell line
to be developed in Europe.
A new company has been set up in the UK to apply high-throughput
technologies to the development of new chemical materials,
including catalysts and novel drugs, for use in the pharmachem
industries.
German pharmaceutical and chemicals supplier Merck KGaA has set up
a new business unit to try and establish how some of the company's
pigments can be used as brand protection technologies.
UK drug delivery specialist SkyePharma received another welcome
boost yesterday with the news that its new formulation of morphine
had been approved in the US.
After over a decade of litigation, Roche Molecular Systems has won
a 'significant legal victory' in a US court case challenging the
validity of patents on its polymerase chain reaction technology,
according to the attorney...
Banner Pharmacaps has entered into an agreement to introduce its
non-animal-derived softgel capsules in Japan for pharmaceutical and
nutritional applications.
Researchers in Finland and Belgium have developed a new way of
making plant-derived compounds in cell cultures that should cut the
cost of manufacturing a raft of pharmaceuticals, including drugs
for cancer.
Automated systems provider RTS LIFE Science International is to
launch SmaRTStore, an automated sample management system designed
for customers that do not have the large-scale requirements, or
budget, of the big pharmaceutical companies,...
UK biotechnology company Acambis is looking for new clients to take
up unused capacity at its facility in Massachusetts, US, now that
Baxter has pulled out of a manufacturing contract.
Pharming of the Netherlands has modified two of its commercial
relationships in a move that should accelerate its activities in
developing therapeutic proteins that are made in transgenic
animals, writes Phil Taylor.
A highly flexible automatic measuring device capable of detecting
the tiniest leaks of CO2 from protective gas atmosphere packaging
has been developed. While initially being targeted at the food
sector, its pharmaceutical applications...
The enzyme alpha secretase could join its beta and gamma cousins as
a promising new target for Alzheimer's disease drugs, if research
conducted in Germany is borne out in additional study.
New biotechnology processes are poised to change the economics of
manufacturing drugs, creating the potential for delivering both
affordable medicines to patients in the developing world and laying
the foundation for new markets.
A new generation of potent, targetted vaccines for cancer could be
the offspring of a marriage between two technologies developed at
European biotechnology companies Avidex and Active Biotech.
A recently-introduced microstructured mixer that can provide much
tighter heat and reaction control compared to conventional systems
was showcased at the ACHEMASIA meeting last week.
Belgian chemicals and pharmaceuticals company UCB has made an offer
to buy UK biotechnology firm Celltech for £1.53 billion (€2.25bn)
in a move seen as a way of getting hold of the latter's much-touted
arthritis drug.
Ireland's position as a hot-spot for inwards investment in
pharmaceutical manufacturing is under threat from companies in the
Far East and Puerto Rico, according to PharmaChemical Ireland.
Directors at Swiss fine chemicals group Lonza have appointed a
former BASF manager as their new chief executive, after major
losses led to the resignation of Markus Gemuend earlier this year.
The needle-free injector technology underpinning PowderJect, the
drug delivery company which shot onto the biotechnology scene in
the mid-1990s and was snapped up by Chiron of the US last year,
will form the foundation of a new therapeutic...
DSM Anti-Infectives, the world's largest producer of antibiotics,
is planning to expand a manufacturing plant for a key intermediate
used in the manufacture of cephalosporins that will make it the
largest producer of the compound...
Researchers have identified a set of genes that control the
development of hair-like structures on cells - called cilia - that
when defective are involved in a range of diseases. They hope the
finding could lead to new drug targets...
A prototype chip-based laboratory developed by a German company
could reduce the time it takes to carry out the DNA amplification
required for polymerase chain reactions to five minutes.
UK chemicals and metals firm Johnson Matthey has opened a precious
metal process catalyst manufacturing plant in India to cater to the
growing demand from the local pharmaceutical industry and provide a
springboard into other Asian...
The European Commission has mapped out its strategy to keep the
European Union at the forefront of research into nanotechnology, a
position that is in danger of being eroded, and plans to double its
funding in the sector writes Phil...
Signalling its continued commitment to the emerging economies of
the recently expanded European Union, Switzerland's Novartis has
unveiled a €70 million overall investment in a new generics
production and logistics facility in...
Swiss contract manufacturing company Lonza has licensed a
technology that makes it possible to make peptide drugs that are
longer and have a more complex structure than is possible using
conventional techniques, reports Phil Taylor.
