There are fears that a renewed epidemic of severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) could occur in 2004, after initial tests on a
patient with symptoms associated with the disease suggested that
the causative agent was the SARS coronavirus...
Life sciences technology company Invitrogen has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire fellow US firm BioReliance, which
specialises in the testing and manufacture of biologic drugs.
The Indian government has proposed draconian new penalties for
individuals found making counterfeit pharmaceuticals, after a
number of fatalities associated with bootleg drugs.
For the past 10 years, drug companies have paid the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) fees to review each drug they want
approved, on the grounds that the increased funding for the agency
would accelerate review times and shorten...
The executive chairman of UK-based drug delivery specialist
SkyePharma, Ian Gowrie-Smith, will step down at the firm's next
annual general meeting in 2004 and seek reappointment as
non-executive chairman.
France's Nautilus Biotech says that it has achieved a key technical
milestone in a collaboration with Aventis Pasteur, designed to
improve the productivity of the latter's vaccine manufacturing
process.
DFB Pharmaceuticals has acquired fellow US company Phyton to gain
access to the latter's plant cell fermentation technology for the
manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
Kiadis of the Netherlands has acquired the entire issued share
capital and assets of Selact in a move that bolsters its
capabilities in chemical synthesis and contract research.
2003 was the second best year of all time for the biotechnology
industry, and 2004 looks set to be even better. This is the verdict
of James Burrill, head of US merchant bank Burrill & Co, who
describes the industry as "rising...
US packaging giant MeadWestvaco has started the second phase of a
restructuring programme aimed at improving productivity at the firm
and boosting both earnings and cash flow, at the cost of 1,000 job
cuts and a number of facility...
A UK-based animal rights group has passed video footage of alleged
animal cruelty at a facility in Germany run by US contract research
company Covance to the Ministry of Environment in
Northrhine-Westfalia.
The international team of scientists working to determine the most
common variations of the human genome have given more details of
the rationale behind the effort, known as the HapMap project, in
the journal Nature (18 December).
Formulation specialist TransForm Pharmaceuticals has licensed a
novel salt form of the antiepileptic drug topiramate to Johnson
& Johnson in a development that provides the first real
validation of its business model.
The restructuring activity that has features this year in the
European pharmachem industry continued yesterday with the news that
Germany's Merck KGaA had sold off BioMer, a joint venture focusing
on orthopaedic products.
A UK company has introduced a clean manufacturing environment that
fits on top of a bench as a low-cost alternative for companies that
do not want to invest in a full cleanroom facility.
German biotechnology company febit has started shipping its geniom
one instrument - the first benchtop system that handles the entire
process of oligonucleotide microarray synthesis, hybridisation and
data analysis in a single instrument.
A combination of a microarray technology developed by Switzerland's
Zeptosens and signal processing software from US firm ViaLogy has
provided a quantum leap in the sensitivity of gene expression
testing in a new study.
Germany's third-largest chemicals company Degussa has won the Frost
& Sullivan Product of the Year Award for its L-hydantoinase
enzymatic process for single-step production of L-amino acids, used
in the pharmaceutical, food...
Dutch formulation specialist ForTe has developed a new taste-masked
formulation of sodium phenylbutyrate, used in the treatment of a
group of rare metabolic disorders characterised by an inability to
eliminate waste nitrogen, that...
The US subsidiary of Denmark's Nilfisk-Advance group has introduced
a new collection container for its vacuum cleaners, designed to
allow the safe handling and disposal of hazardous materials,
including potent powder compounds...
In response to growing concerns about counterfeit drugs in the US
drug supply, an industry group has submitted a report to the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) as a commentary on policy issues
surrounding prescription drug counterfeiting,...
Although there are a number of interesting new compounds in the
antibacterial pipeline, none of them are likely to reach
blockbuster status, according to a new report from Datamonitor.
The troubles affecting the global chemicals industry were brought
into sharp focus today when Solutia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection, citing onerous financial commitments to its former
parent Monsanto that are hampering...
Switzerland's Lonza has won a long-term manufacturing contract from
US biotechnology bellwether Genentech for Rituxan (rituximab) a
biological drug which recorded worldwide sales of $1.48 billion in
2002.
UK-headquartered separations company Whatman is to sell its filter
cartridge business to Graver Technologies of the US for $2.1
million (€1.7m) in cash, continuing a string of divestments as it
copes with a decline in revenues.
Mark McClellan, the US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner,
has given the strongest hint to date that generic versions of
biological drugs may be approved without the need for extensive
clinical trials.
Porvair Sciences of the UK has introduced a new product for
concentrating samples in 96 or 384-well microplates, which aims to
remove the traditional laboratory bottleneck of waiting for solvent
to evaporate from the plates before...
The number of shots delivered in national influenza immunisation
programmes could be increased - without making any additional
vaccine - by simply using a syringe developed by Becton Dickinson.
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Synthelabo has opened a new
manufacturing facility in Aquitaine for the production of two of
its top drugs, the antithrombotic Plavix (clopidogrel) and Aprovel
(irbesartan) for hypertension.
Preliminary findings of a study in monkeys suggest that researchers
have taken an important step towards a possible treatment strategy
for the Ebola virus.
Two US companies have forged an alliance to develop a polymer-based
technology that could be used to shield drugs from inactivating
processes in the body, extending their time in the circulation.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that Internet sales of
prescription drugs should not be permitted in European Union member
states but that over-the-counter drugs may be sold on-line and
through mail-order.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 15 New Molecular
Entities in the current year to 30 September, 2003, setting the
stage to outpace last year's registrations by nearly 20 per cent,
says a report from Cutting...
Welsh company Great Lakes Fine Chemicals has teamed up with Phoenix
Chemicals to develop new, more cost effective processes for the
production of pharmaceutical intermediates.
Ireland's Elan has said that its US-based drug delivery business,
NanoSystems, will not be part of the sell-off in assets forced by
its onerous debt burden. The company is also retaining its US acute
care products business.
Australia's Gradipore has brought in external help to find a
solution to the company's manufacturing problems for its
polyacrylamide gels, used for electrophoretic separations in the
life sciences industry.
The amount of pharmaceutical R&D funding headed out-of-house to
research suppliers engaged in drug development work will grow
almost 15 per cent annually for the next five years, nearly double
the anticipated increase in overall...
The lacklustre growth in the chemicals industry will continue to
lag behind world gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the next
few years, a reversal of the situation before 2000, according to
BASF chairman Juergen Hambrecht.
Scotland's PPL Therapeutics, once one of the brightest stars in the
UK biotechnology universe, came to desultory end this week when the
company auctioned off most of its remaining assets for just
£169,000 (€242,000).
Profile Therapeutics of the UK, a specialist in inhaled therapies,
said it has agreed to supply France's Schering SA with its Prodose
intelligent inhalers to support Schering's product Ventavis
(iloprost), a recently-approved...
A recently-formed UK company has developed a simple solution to
avoiding one of the most fundamental problems affecting
pharmaceutical products: contamination with water.
The first draft sequence of the genome of the chimpanzee has been
completed, providing a tantalising first glimpse of the genetic
differences that separates man from one of its closest cousins in
the animal kingdom.
A US start-up company specialising in biomaterials, 3DMatrix, has
developed a synthetic scaffold product that can be used to create
self-assembling, microscale environments to encourage the growth of
cells in culture.
A team of researchers in Sweden have developed a drug based on a
naturally-occurring protein that could represent a new class of
antibacterial to tackle the growing problem of antibiotic
resistance.
The Scottish manufacturer of a safety syringe used in a new AIDS
drug has sacked most of its staff and shut down its only production
facility, but will continue to develop the technology.
Companies filing for approval of their drugs in the US market must
now supply all information on the product's labelling and package
insert in an electronic format, according to the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
Bar code scanning systems, which scan medications and patient
identification bracelets at hospital bedsides to verify patients
are receiving the correct medications, were voted the top choice
for preventing medication errors in a...
