Just ahead of the Lab Automation Europe and International Biotech
conferences in London this week, DrugResearcher.com spoke with
Kevin Hrusovsky, the chief executive of Caliper Technologies, to
get his take on the current state of...
ESA has developed a set of oxidative stability tools that could
allow compounds with unfavourable characteristics to be weeded out
at an early stage of development.
Merck & Co continued a run of bad luck in its product
development portfolio yesterday with the news that it had
terminated the development of a drug to treat diabetes.
Belgium's Devgen has been awarded a €1.9 million technology
development grant from the Flemish government to develop a
technology to identify the molecular target of human drugs.
Dow Chemical has teamed up with Germany's greenovation Biotech to
develop ways of manufacturing therapeutic proteins such as
monoclonal antibodies in plants.
CIMA is granted a US patent covering the use of effervescence to
improve the absorption of poorly-soluble drugs and target delivery
to specific areas of the GI tract.
The days when cigarettes were held up in advertising as healthy
products are long gone, but new research suggests there may be some
substance to this - at least for some disorders affecting the
brain.
Researchers in the US say they have achieved a critical objective
in an effort to create a living organism from DNA building-blocks.
The process used could be used to create bespoke cell-based
organisms to carry out a range of functions,...
A case study based on Pfizer's blockbuster antidepressant Zoloft
(sertraline HCl) reveals how early research on the different
crystal forms of a drug can avoid generic challenges later on.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday issued a new
document that encourages drug and biologic developers to conduct
pharmacogenomic tests during drug development and clarifies how the
agency will evaluate the resulting...
A new formulation technology developed by Rohm and Haas has the
potential to do away with the problem of prescription drug abuse
and make medicines safer in overdose. In-Pharmatechnologist.com
discussed this and other applications...
The healthcare division of UK-based speciality chemicals maker
Croda Chemicals Europe used the CPhI exhibition in Frankfurt this
week as a platform to launch two new excipients for drug delivery.
San-Diego based FeRx has received a slice of funding to support
research to evaluate the use of its MagneTarg drug delivery system
in the site-specific localisation of gemcitabine, a
chemotherapeutic agent already approved for the...
Solutia has launched an offensive on the outsourced peptide
synthesis market with the formation of a new business group in
Switzerland focusing on the sector.
An EU project has launched the first ever European virtual
microencapsulation institute, aimed at turning technologies in this
field into viable business products.
GSK has opened a new high-throughput chemistry facility at its
Harlow research centre in Essex, UK, that it hopes will allow it to
cut down its drug development time by around two years. This and
other automation projects at the company...
Medarex of the USA, a specialist in producing fully-human
antibodies, has entered into two new agreements aimed at improving
the properties of its drug candidates.
Ambion has developed technique that allows easier monitoring of
short RNA sequences in a variety of sample types and is 100-500
more sensitive than Northern blot analysis.
Ireland's Elan Corp has signed up another heavyweight partner -
Janssen - for its NanoCrystals technology, designed to improve the
solubility of drug compounds.
France's BioProtein Technologies, a biotechnology company
specialising in the production of therapeutic proteins in the milk
of transgenic rabbits, has extended its biomanufacturing services
to include recombinant vaccine production.
Inamed has signed up Bayer BP for its computer-controlled AKITA
inhaler, designed to improve respiratory treatment by tailoring the
delivery of inhaled drugs.
Affymetrix releases into the public domain what it says is the
first significant SNP database that includes genotype data and
allele frequencies across the entire human genome.
Epigenomics and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute are to press
ahead with the first phase of the Human Epigenome Project following
the successful completion of a pilot study funded by the European
Union.
BioFocus has entered into an agreement with Switzerland's Roche for
the design of a several custom kinase libraries for use in the
latter's drug discovery efforts.
The British Pharmacopoeia 2003 is due to be available in the next
few days, and from today can be ordered online; updates have also
been released from the European equivalent.
The speakers at next month's Manufacturing Excellence Ireland
meeting, focusing on automation and control in the pharmaceutical
industry, have been announced.
Crucell has granted a license for its PER.C6 cell line technology
to Novavax, allowing the latter company to start offering contract
manufacturing services for vaccines.
GlaxoSmithKline has secured rights to a technology, developed in
partnership with US company Advaxis, could improve the
effectiveness of vaccine-based treatments for cancer.
Pall tells BIOPHEX/INTERPHEX conference that use of its
ultrafiltration technologies cuts both the time and cost of
conjugate vaccine production; greater adoption could increase the
availability of vaccines for diseases such as meningitis...
Dow Chemical has entered into an agreement to manufacture a
potential drug for cancer in transgenic plants. The deal, with
Sunol Molecular, covers production of the protein in plants and a
comparison with a version grown in mammalian...
The drug industry has largely discarded shellac as a film coating
for solid oral dosage forms in favour of synthetic resins, but this
may have been premature; a recently-issued US patent reveals that
shellac is a remarkably versatile...
Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and microscopy are emerging as
useful new tools for the detection of counterfeit medicines, to
complement their existing role in active ingredient detection and
process control.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has taken another step towards building a
franchise in insulin therapy by licensing an inhaled version of the
drug from QDose for $30m.
The notion that there is undercapacity in biomanufacturing has
become common wisdom, but a new study suggest that now supply and
demand are in balance.
Medical device multinational Guidant has paid $35 million (€32m) in
cash to acquire the rights to a polymer technology from MediVas for
use in its stent programme.
A process developed by Amersham has enabled Isis Pharmaceuticals to
produce the world's largest antisense oligonucleotide synthesis
scale per single run.
A new report from Best Practices provides a view of how the top
pharma firms manage their quality control to reduce manufacuring
costs and production time.
Transgenic plant technologies could lead to a revolution in vaccine
production and manufacture; should plant-based vaccines prove
effective in clinical trials, this will drive licensing activity
between key vaccine players and companies...
Clariant has announced plans to establish a Technology Centre in
Germany that will support the pharmaceutical industry in the
commercialisation of new drugs.
UK study finds sewage treatment is effective in removing
pharmaceutical and personal care product chemicals,although there
some facilities are better than others.
Needle-free injection systems are finally emerging as a serious
alternative to traditional syringes, despite first being introduced
in the middle of the last century.
The organisers of CORDIA EuropaBio 2003 have revealed the keynote
speakers for the 'largest convention in Europe for trade,
investment, partnership and information exchange'.
Swiss drugmaker Roche has succeeded in developing a crystalline
form of one of its pipeline compounds with the help of a US
company, TransForm Pharmaceuticals, that is applying a
high-throughput approach to form and formulation.
