Molecular Probes of the Netherlands, a specialist in proteomics
tools, took the opportunity presented by the Lab Automation Europe
meeting towards the end of last month to launch a range of new kits
for protein, RNA and DNA analysis.
ICI subsidiary National Starch has significantly hiked up prices in
the US as rising costs across the board continue to put pressure on
the bottom line.
A blister packaging system for tablets and capsules developed by
Colbert Packaging has just received a top rating for child safety
from the US Government's Consumer Product Safety Commission,
allowing the company to press ahead...
Another report has slammed the so-called blockbuster model of drug
development in the pharmaceutical industry, in which R&D
efforts are concentrated on drugs that can command sales in excess
of $1 billion (€820m).
Radleys Discovery Technologies, a UK-based specialist in parallel
chemistry, has introduced a platform to speed up the purification
process after synthesis of multiple compounds.
UK company Medisys has confirmed that it will move ahead with the
launch of its Futura safety syringe product on its own and should
be filling customer orders in the second quarter of 2004.
Sanofi-Synthelabo said it will invest €250 million over the next
four years to expand its production site in Veresegyhaz, Hungary,
and modernise its manufacturing processes.
The pharmaceutical industry is suffering from a raft of problems at
present, from a decline in R&D productivity through patent
expirations and the increasing reluctance of health care systems to
pay for prescription drugs.
Spirax Sarco has introduced a stainless steel steam trap station -
used to remove condensate and air or other incondensable gases from
a production pipeline - that is suitable for use in pharmaceutical
applications. The all-in-one...
Chemicals company Rhodia has played down reports in the French
press that it is considering a sell-off of its activities in
silicon, food additives and phosphates as part of an asset
divestment programme aimed at improving its profitability.
The US authorities have arrested another individual for suspected
involvement in the distribution of fake copies of Pfizer's
blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin).
A new process developed by RP Scherer promises to overcome the
stability problems that can occur when certain pharmaceutical
actives are formulated alongside fatty acids in softgel capsules.
De Novo Pharmaceuticals says it has refocused its business from
in-house drug discovery to commercialisation of its proprietary
in silico drug discovery platforms, halving its workforce in
the process.
French company Kalix has launched a new system called the Universal
Feeder which increases the production capacity of its machines for
filling and cartoning pharmaceuticals and cosmetics in tubes.
The worldwide cellular assays market is projected to grow by more
than 50 per cent to $700 million over the next five years as
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seek methods to increase
the efficiency of their drug discovery...
German biotech company flyion has developed a new technology which
speeds up drug development and could reduce the number of animals
needed in research.
Israeli generic pharmaceutical company Taro Pharmaceutical
Industries has been granted a US patent for a means of dosing
liquid medicines into a spoon without any spillages.
General Electric was yesterday cleared to press ahead with its €8.1
billion acquisition of UK Amersham by the US antitrust authorities,
and promptly announced a sweeping reorganisation of the business in
an attempt to boost its profit...
A number of senior executives at microfluidics and lab automation
specialist Caliper Technologies are leaving the company in a
reorganisation aimed at cutting costs and breaking even in cash
flow terms in 2005.
A new report claims that there is little future for small- to
medium-sized research-based pharmaceutical companies over the next
12 years, as they will simply not have the R&D muscle needed to
survive, says a new report from Decision...
UK encapsulation company BioProgress yesterday unveiled plans to
raise £6.6 million (€9.4m) through a placement of shares in order
to build a new pharmaceutical production plant.
Filtration and purification specialist Pall has reported a 12.5 per
cent hike in first-quarter sales to $374 million (€310m), with life
sciences putting in a strong showing, up 15.5 per cent to $152
million.
Aerosol delivery specialist Inyx has entered into an agreement with
a European partner that will see the company sign a partner for its
dry powder inhaler (DPI) technologies for the first time.
Despite the best efforts of specialist software development
companies and millions of dollars in spending on dedicated
programmes, the most commonly used package in the drug discovery
laboratory is Microsoft's office workhorse...
Akzo Nobel opened a new biotech vaccines production facility in
Boxmeer, the Netherlands, yesterday, that signposts a new ambition
in human vaccines for the group.
The pharmaceutical industry has welcomed the passage of new
legislation by the UK Parliament that will give police new powers
to intervene in public order offences, including those carried out
by animal extremist groups.
Many drugs cannot be administered orally since they cannot be taken
up in the gastrointestinal tract. All attempts to solve this
problem have thus far resulted in unacceptable risks of side
effects, mainly because the intestinal wall...
UK firm Cobra Biomanufacturing has ended its first year as a
publicly-listed company with a healthy 137 per cent increase in
revenues to £6 million (€8.6m), helped by an expansion of its
business in the US.
Denmark-based vaccines company Bavarian Nordic is investing DK 250
million (€33.6m) in a production facility that will be the largest
of its kind in Europe, producing up to 120 million vaccine doses a
year.
Tecan UK has launched a new plate-handling add-on for its Aquarius
multi-channel pipetting system that should increase the throughput
of the device, which is used for applications such as assay
development and drug screening.
US packaging specialist Advantek has sold its Vaculok range of
vacuum-insulated panels to MOCON, an instrumentation company
serving the medical, pharmaceutical and food industries.
A new low-calorie sweetener which tastes just like table sugar and
is suitable for use in pharmaceuticals and other health care
products is now available from Biospherix, a subsidiary of US firm
Spherix Incorporated.
Over the last few years, researchers involved in high-throughput
screening have been seeking out the use of their expensive reagents
by developing assays that use smaller and smaller volumes, helped
by sophisticated automation technologies.
A new drug for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD), developed by Swiss drugmaker Novartis, will make use of two
technologies developed by UK drug delivery firm SkyePharma.
Cambrex has continued its recruitment of top-level executives in
its pharmaceutical and biopharma business unit with the appointment
of Edward Robinson as executive vice president for Europe.
It is already well established that microwave energy can be used to
speed up the breakdown of protein molecules by enzymes, the first
stage in protein identification. Now, a collaboration between two
companies is looking to incorporate...
The innovation gap between the EU and the US will not be closed
before 2010 if the present rate of progress continues, according to
new figures contained in the Commission's European innovation
scoreboard for 2003.
An imaging system that promises to take the tedium out of protein
crystallisation experiments made its European debut at last week's
International Biotech conference in London, UK.
German biopharmaceutical company Medigene has been granted a US
patent covering a specific manufacturing process for viruses suited
for the use in therapies and research.
A lactose product developed by DMV International of the
Netherlands, Pharmatose DCL14, has properties that give it
performance advantages over rival excipients used as
filler/binders, according to the company.
Japan's Sumitomo Chemical is absorbing its wholly-owned Sumika Fine
Chemicals subsidiary and combining it with its own activities in
this area to bolster its role as a supplier of pharmaceutical
chemicals.
Japan's Nitto Denko has developed what it claims is the world's
first biodegradable gene carrier that can be used to transfer
foreign genes into animal cells. Because the polymer breaks down in
the body, it exhibits extremely...
A pilot study supported by the European Commission has concluded
that a lack of access to scientific equipment and technology, and
not salaries, is one of the main factors causing the 'brain drain'
of scientists, often from...
TTP Labtech gave the first European demonstration of the
high-throughput version of its mosquito liquid-handling system,
designed to cope with the tiny quantities of reagents used in the
new generation of 1536-well plates, this week...
The high cost of some of the compounds kept in pharmaceutical
company libraries has driven a move towards the use of smaller and
smaller quantities of samples in both in storage and
high-throughput screening.
