MicroCHIPS scooped the drug delivery technology award at this year’s AAPS, after which CEO John Santini spoke to in-PharmaTechnologist.com about the device and what the future holds for the company.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has unveiled an ambitious plan to build an insulin plant in China, tapping into a major new market for diabetes treatments.
Pfizer and Schering-Plough have both exceeded their earnings estimates, although this was largely underpinned by favourable exchange rates and low expectations.
UK-based Pharmaceutical Profiles has used an imaging technique known as scintigraphy to quantify the effects of Amylin / Eli Lilly’s latest diabetes drug on the stomach.
US packaging specialist West Pharmaceutical Services has carried the earnings momentum it generated in the first three months of the year through to the second quarter.
Eli Lilly and Rexam are both investing in their French
manufacturing facilities in preparation for the production of an
insulin pen they are developing.
Canada's SemBioSys Genetics has begun final pre-clinical studies of
its novel plant-produced insulin product in preparation for its
submission to US regulatory authorities.
Pfizer may have given up on its non-injectable insulin, but
researchers in the US think they may have cracked a way to deliver
the hormone orally, linking it up to vitamin B12 to protect it
through the digestive system.
Isis Pharmaceuticals has initiated a Phase I safety study for its
first-in-class antisense drug that aims to control blood glucose
levels in patients with Type II diabetes.
Danish diabetes care specialist Novo Nordisk has expanded an
agreement with biotech supplier Millipore, granting exclusive,
long-term distribution rights to the company's insulin
products for cell culture applications.
An improved inhalable insulin product developed by collaborating UK
and US firms has just completed a glucose clamp study in the US,
with results suggesting that the product could pose a significant
threat to Pfizer's Exubera...
Bespak, one of the two contract manufacturers of Pfizer's inhaled
insulin Exubera, has announced it will cut a "significant" number
of jobs as sales of the once-touted blockbuster are falling short
of expectations.
A new class of diabetes drugs is showing promising clinical
results, with the big players in the field all scrapping it out for
a slice of the potential rewards.
Diamyd Medical will continue with a clinical trial of its gene
therapy designed to protect insulin-producing cells in diabetes
patients, despite major errors invalidating the study.
A young start-up company is gearing up to challenge the likes of
Pfizer by developing a new insulin product, based on its novel
nano-based intranasal delivery technology.
Sanofi-Aventis is gearing up for the European roll-out of a new
disposable insulin pen designed to address a broader spectrum of
patient needs than currently available injection devices.
Eli Lilly has come up with a new insulin pen with a digital display
that allows patients to record and review the time, date and dose
of the last 16 insulin shots.
French firm Valois Pharma will be providing Generex with a novel
valve for its pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI), used for its
innovative method of buccal delivery of insulin.
Scientists have mapped the most important genes associated with the
risk of developing Type II diabetes, bringing a genetic test to
identify those most at risk a step closer.
Pfizer has overcome potential competition by buying out BioRexis, a
company developing similar drugs that could prove to be powerful
new diabetes treatments.
Canadian firm SemBioSys Genetics last week announced that its
proprietary plant-produced insulin has been shown to be
indistinguishable from human insulin, opening up a whole new
potential source of the hormone.
Eli Lilly has signed a new agreement with drug delivery specialist
Alkermes for the manufacture of its new inhaled insulin drug - AIR
- in advance of the product's market launch.
Innovative, non-invasive new ways of delivering insulin are poised
to transform diabetes management, despite concerns about their
safety and efficacy, according to new research.
A breakthrough in diabetes research has finally let scientists
answer the elusive question of what causes the disease, enabling
them to develop to a new treatment that reverses its effects.
Novo Nordisk is planning to sue the head of the US Patent and
Trademark Office after its inhaled insulin product has had its
patent application knocked back for the second time.
The Servier Institute and Pasteur-Weizmann Council has awarded its
annual prize in biomedical research to two scientists for their
work in diabetes and autoimmunity, paving the way for improved
treatment and an eventual cure for this...
Biotechnology firm Apollo claims to have achieved mission
impossible in the oral delivery of insulin by successfully lowering
blood glucose levels in diabetic rats using its proprietary oral
delivery technology.
Scientists have isolated a single protein that has a key role in
diabetes development, which could form the basis for new drug
therapies that could effectively treat a disease that has become
endemic.
Silicon-based micro-machined devices for the controlled delivery of
oral therapeutics, developed by Tejal Desai from the University of
California, have won first prize at the 2006 Eurand Award
Programme, impressing with their ability...
Generex has registered a new patent in the US that covers broad
claims for the delivery of macromolecules via the buccal cavity of
the mouth, further safeguarding its RapidMist drug delivery
technology which it uses to spray insulin...
Alantos Pharmaceuticals has initiated a Phase I trial for its lead
compound for diabetes, a disease that commands a global market
estimated at $11bn (€8.6bn) and is expected to grow by more than 50
per cent by the end of the decade.
The convenience of non-invasive insulin delivery methods is set to
overcome their high cost and concerns about safety and efficacy,
with the greatest beneficiary being the European inhaled insulin
market which is predicted to swell...
The insulin market is set to explode over the next five years as
uptake of insulin therapy is likely to increase with sufferers
benefiting from heightened awareness and knowledge as well as the
influx of affordable, innovative product...
A cancer biology discovery could lead to new diabetes treatments
after it was discovered that a mutation in a tumour suppressor gene
causes pancreatic islet cells to reproduce.
The Tech Group has experienced a quarter of explosive growth as it
ramps up production for the launch of Exubera - Pfizer's
newly-approved and much-anticipated needle-free insulin.
Scientists believe they have made a major breakthrough in a
potential cure for diabetes after animal experiments using a
combinatorial treatment approach reversed onset type 1 diabetes.
New diabetes trials scheduled to start this spring have been
heralded as groundbreaking as researchers aim to reverse juvenile
diabetes of which numbers have been steadily on the rise in
developed nations.
The insulin delivery devices thriving in today's market will slowly
be replaced as new and better technologies continue to rise from
the R&D pipeline. For current market leader, Novo Nordisk, this
threat is particularly dangerous.
Recently approved, Exubera is the first in a line up of needle-free
insulins promising to win the hearts of diabetics. Amidst all the
hype, some market analysts predict it will be a blockbuster, while
others believe it has been overvalued....
UK scientists think that diabetes patients could be able to receive
insulin via a nasal spray using yeast, which would open up the way
for a spray to be developed to replace injections.
The big pharma companies may have dreamed of launching the world's
first non-injectable insulin, but it has been Canadian biotech
company Generex that shattered this dream, bypassing EU and US
regulatory processes and launching...
With the first non-injectable insulin to the world market predicted
to earn $1.5 bn (€1.2 bn) a year, inhaled pulmonary delivery is
winning the race, looking certain to trigger a bitter grapple
between the big insulin players.
Injectable insulin is under threat. The imminent arrival of
non-injectable insulin could finally topple the big insulin players
off their comfortable perch, in the $7 bn industry that has seen
little real competition until now.
Canadian biotech company Generex has begun a study of its flagship
oral insulin spray in patients with Type-1 diabetes. The product,
already available for type 2 diabetes in Ecuador, was the first
non-injectable form of insulin to...
New insights into the dysregulation of beta cells and their impact
on type 2 diabetes progression is now possible after Roche
announced a partnership, which aims to identify novel pathways and
new biomarkers for drug development.
SciGen are to establish a manufacturing facility in China in a
response to the growing demand for the Hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine
and insulin, which has reached epidemic proportions with 2 billion
people having become infected with...
