The global economic downturn marked 2003 first quarter results for
Dutch based life science company DSM but strong autonomous volume
growth boosted figures to higher than 2002.
A UK-based company has become the first to offer a blister
packaging product for pharmaceuticals that meets the BS 8404
standard, which covers packs that are child-resistant but also
allow easy access for the elderly and others who...
Invensys APV, a supplier of process equipment to the pharmaceutical
industry, will demonstrate its new technologies at the upcoming
Achema 2003 exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany.
Prominent US genomics Robert L. Strausberg, who directs the
National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Cancer Genomics office, has been
named as vice president for research at The Institute for Genomic
Research (TIGR).
Engineers in the US are one step closer to mass-producing
therapeutic proteins needed by today's pharmaceutical industry.
Researchers claim to have achieved a major milestone in their
efforts to effectively produce human therapeutics...
The biotechnology industry in the state of British Columbia in
Canada could double the number of companies, attract large
revenue-generating biotechnology firms and create more than 5,000
new jobs within five years, says a strategic...
Strasbourg, France-based Aventis has announced its intention to
sell off part of its remaining stake in Rhodia, its loss-making
former specialty chemicals subsidiary. The move reduces its stake
in Rhodia to 15.3 per cent from 25.2...
A prominent US law professor from Stanford University has called
for an international treaty on sharing scientific and technological
information, to be based on the arrangements already agreed for
free trade under the World Trade...
Billion dollar science and technology company Dowpharma, a business
unit of The Dow Chemical company, has announced new capabilities in
catalytic asymmetric hydroformylation (AHF) of olefins for
applications in the development and...
Akzo Nobel business unit Diosynth, which specialises in the
production of complex active biopharmaceutical ingredients for the
pharmaceutical sector, has developed a new method for manufacturing
synthetic peptides that, it claims,...
Kisters Kayat has launched its Ultra-Flexible Packaging Cell,
designed to take primary packages all the way from production line
to bundled packs, trays or cases and finished pallet.
IBM in the UK and US based IDBS, a provider of data management,
analysis and decision-making software for drug discovery, this week
announced a global strategic alliance.
US company PPD is taking a stake in Chemokine Therapeutics, a
Canadian- and US-based biotechnology company, to continue
development of a proprietary peptide derived from a particular
chemokine that may make the peptide useful as a...
An expert group on intellectual property rights (IPRs) has warned
that rules governing the protection of copyrights, database rights
and patents hamper scientific endeavour and must be changed 'in the
interest of society',...
US provider of drug discovery tools Deltagen saw cutbacks in
workforce and the closure of operating units help boost revenue by
93 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2002 to $4.7 million (€4.3m),
compared to $2.5 million (€2.3m) for...
Total revenues for the four emerging sectors of protein array,
crucial antibody array, peptide biochip, protein biochip, and
solution bead/particle array were estimated at $90 million
(€83million) in 2002, writes market analyst Business...
LION bioscience this week launched the latest version of its open
integration platform, LION DiscoveryCenter 3.2, with an enhanced
chemistry functionality for integrated drug discovery.
Millipore, which specialises in providing technologies, tools and
services for the discovery, development and production of new
therapeutic drugs, has reported first-quarter 2003 sales of $187
million (€173 million), up 13 per cent...
German packaging company Bosch Packaging Technology will reveal a
host of products at the upcoming exhibition on chemical engineering
and biotechnology to be held in Frankfurt, Germany in May this
year. Brand new on the stand, filling...
The addition of HarbourVest Partner to Israeli life sciences
venture capital fund Vitalife prompted the fund to announce on
Monday the closing of its first fund, worth €46 million.
UK biotechnology bellwether Celltech has emerged victorious in the
bidding battle for Oxford GlycoSciences. OGS reluctantly gave in to
Celltech's pressure on 11 April, after the latter firm bought
additional holdings which brought...
Researchers have now completed the sequencing of the human genome,
to an accuracy of 99.999 per cent, nearly three years after the
first 'working' draft was published to great fanfare in June 2000.
The achievement comes...
The $7.3 billion (€6.8bn) global market for non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs could soon include an upstart competitor
whose new product holds the promise of allaying joint pain but
without the gastrointestinal side effects often...
US Neuro Bioscience has signed an agreement to acquire a minimum of
75 per cent of the issued and outstanding share capital of CLL
Pharma, a French company engaged in the business of reformulating
drugs using its proprietary drug...
US company PerkinElmer was presented with the 2003 Analytical
Instrumentation Company of the Year award by market research
company Frost & Sullivan in a ceremony last night.
Amersham Biosciences has launched a new DNA Amplification Kit,
GenomiPhi, which it says can simplify the DNA preparation process
and enable high-quality DNA to be prepared from a limited amount of
biological material.
German pharmaceutical and ingredients group Boehringer Ingelheim,
outpacing market growth, ended 2002 with a healthy rise in profits,
the company reports this week.
Iceland-based deCODE genetics announced this week that AstraZeneca
has entered into an agreement to purchase its RoboHTC automated
protein crystallography platform, earmarked for AstraZeneca's drug
discovery sites in Alderley...
US Steris Corporation has extended operations in Europe with the
announcement today that it has acquired Swiss provider of
washing/decontamination systems Hamo Holding.
The European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) is setting up a
trade office in Aarhus, Denmark for its activities in innovation
and functional genomics, reports Biotech Denmark on its website.
Genetics-based drug discovery company CompleGen is to supply Berlex
Biosciences, a US affiliate of German company Schering, with a high
throughput assay system for discovery of compounds active against a
novel target identified by...
The latest data on cases of antibody-mediated pure red cell aplasia
associated with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen-Cilag's
erythropoietin product Eprex/Erypo (epoetin alfa) have suggested
that measures put in place...
The European Commission has earmarked €13 million from the budget
of the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6) (2002-2006) to
promote and facilitate research co-operation with the 13 associated
candidate countries for...
US biopharmaceutical company Scolr, latterly known as Nutraceutix,
is to ship the first order for its patented controlled delivery
product Glucosamine/Chondroitin to Europe.
UK developer of medical diagnostics devices Osmetech continued the
strategy to build on its healthcare diagnostics business with the
acquisition this week of the Atlanta-based 'OPTI' product line of
blood gas analysers owned...
Dutch life science company DSM reported this week that on Tuesday
three people were killed following an explosion at its Melamine
Plant 2 in Geleen, the Netherlands.
Life science company Chiral Quest this week announced that the
non-profit organisation, the Penn State Research Foundation, has
received a US patent covering the compositions of matter and use
for a series of chiral phosphine ligands...
Two British firms, De Novo Pharmaceuticals and Peakdale Molecular,
are to enter into a joint collaboration to exploit their respective
skills in molecular design and chemistry synthesis, writes market
analysts Datamonitor this week.
As the lead story today on In-Pharmatechnologist.com
highlights, the European brain-drain is far from slowing down with
the US continuing to attract researchers and entrepreneurs. A fact
that has had, and will continue to have, a...
Sweden's Biacore International, a specialist in surface plasmon
resonance technologies, has launched its Biacore 3000 GxP (Good
Manufacturing Practice/Good Laboratory Practice) Package, which
will strengthen the system's...
Shareholders at Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche welcomed the
start of a new era as the company summarised recent events,
including the divestment of the vitamins business, at its annual
general meeting yesterday.
The bulk of biotech companies are firmly rooted towards the foot of
the ladder of corporate evolution. Precious few can realistically
claim to be at the top end of the evolutionary scale with full
R&D capabilities, global reach...
Until recently nanotechnologists -- scientists who build devices
and materials one atom or molecule at a time -- concentrated almost
entirely on electronics, computers, telecommunications, and
materials manufacture. Now biomedical...
The Portuguese Minister for Science and Higher Education, Pedro
Lynce, confirmed his government's commitment to investing in
science with the announcement today that the ministry is
considering opening 20 new Ciência Viva (Science...
GlaxoSmithKline has entered into a new drug formulation agreement
with Flamel Technologies of France that could see the latter firm
receive up to $45 million (€41.3m) in licensing fees and milestone
payments.
The Eurobarometer 2002 survey on 'Europeans and biotechnology'
reveals that despite the impression that Europeans are sceptical
about this technology, the majority are optimistic that
biotechnololgy will improve our way...
Dow Chemical has agreed for Dowpharma, Dow's pharmaceutical
manufacturing services business unit, to supply select, proprietary
oligonucleotides to Montreal, Canada-based Topigen Pharmaceuticals
for use in its pharmaceutical...
