Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, has been asked to justify its
decision to outsource its animal testing to countries with no or
poor animal welfare standards, which go against Lilly's commitment
to reducing, refining, and replacing...
Rising contract research organisation (CRO) and investigator fees
are being blamed in a new report as largely contributing to the
skyrocketing cost of new drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to catch up with other
industry sectors that take an increasingly realistic view of what
they consider a core competency and outsourcing what is left -
Outsourcing-Pharma takes a snapshot of...
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has indicated it will rely more heavily on
Asian R&D in the future and has already been stepping up its
involvement in India and Singapore.
Developing new drugs represents an enormous expense for pharma
companies with top firms spending up to £4bn (€6bn) a year on
R&D, according to new industry report.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has told contract sales organisation (CSO)
PDI that it will not renew its sales contract with the firm at the
end of the year, signalling a devastating $65m-$70m loss in annual
revenue for the struggling firm.
Genedata has formed a new collaboration with Wyeth Pharma in which
the computational biology firm will lend its support to Wyeth's
drug discovery efforts.
ClinTec International and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories have announced a
partnership, in which both parties are to jointly develop an
anti-cancer drug that belongs to the topoisomerase inhibitors class
of compounds.
The need for better exploitation of clinical data is linked
directly to the general challenges facing drug development today as
development costs for new products have rocketed from $100m (€79m)
to $800m.
UK pharmaceutical companies are not doing enough to attract fresh
talent to the industry and face serious future recruitment issues
if they don't get their act together now, warns a new report.
AstraZeneca has entered into an agreement with two Contract
Research Organisations (CROs) with the intention of expanding
AstraZeneca's small molecule libraries and enhancing its global
drug discovery offerings.
Outsourcing has become so paramount in a pharmaceutical's
infrastructure and drug discovery strategy that it can no longer be
considered an option, according to a Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)
senior scientist.
Drug development company Amphora Discovery has announced it is to
split the company into two stand-alone business units - a
pharmaceutical development firm in California and a contract
research organisation in Durham.
US blood products and services provider HemaCare has added a new
research segment to the company with the acquisition of private US
firm Teragenix for $4.8m (€3.7m).
The recovery that has taken packaging and processing machinery
company IMA to profitability in 2006 has continued, helped by new
opportunities in the biotech sector and a strong growth in
generics.
Contract research organisations (CROs) are slashing clinical trial
times by an average of 30 per cent and the outsourcing trend is
showing no signs of slowing, as the pharma industry continues to
face rising pressure to reduce time-to-market...
Contract research organisation iNovacia is expanding its compound
library by increasing the number of compound storage modules in a
bid to cope with new contracts.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will beef up its process for
disclosing the conflicts of interest of its advisory experts in a
bid to restore its reputation after a survey suggests its
scientists may be too closely tied with...
Partnerships in drug delivery need to fairly reflect the risk all
parties take but there must also be a champion to drive the project
forward, according to Pfizer's director of drug delivery.
The pharmaceutical and life sciences industries are flushed with
quality IT services, with eight companies that have a specialist
life science/pharmaceutical focus being featured in the top 20 of
the first-ever listing of the world's...
The Japanese pharmaceutical industry is eyeing India as a new hub
to conduct its contract manufacturing and clinical trials - India
is thirsty for new Japanese investment.
Sales, sales, sales has been the focus of drug manufacturers so far
this year, while interest continues to remain high on the topics of
India and generics.
Looking to expand its laboratory testing and consulting services,
PharmEng has acquired Rootlink Tecknic, a laboratory
instrumentation automated solution sales and service company based
in Toronto.
French-owned software firms Axway and Cyclone Commerce have joined
forces with US drug distribution firm McKesson to develop new and
cost-effective IT to support the pharma industry in its venture to
introduce item-level tracking...
PRA International has been busy implementing an advanced data
management system as part of a number of new internal measures
aimed at improving operating efficiency and cutting the costs of
clinical trials.
As financial pressures continue to plague the pharma industry,
firms should consider taking more advantage of sourcing staff in
cheap labour markets in order to save a buck.
The traditional adversarial relationship of wholesalers with
manufacturers must change to true partnership if both are to
achieve better profits and secure the integrity of the drug supply
chain, delegates of the annual general meeting...
The first revisions to the layout of drug package inserts in 25
years will come into effect as of June 30 and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has released a draft technical document to
help drug manufacturers incorporate the...
While praising the benefits of radio-frequency identification
(RFID), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refrained
from demanding its implementation in new measures it unveiled to
combat counterfeit drugs, asking instead...
Troubled contract sales and marketing firm PDI has recently won a
much-needed new sales contract and made two new top executive
appointments as part of ongoing efforts to turn its flagging
business around.
In what it claims is the largest investment to date by any
multinational drug company in China, AstraZeneca will spend $100m
(€77.6m) on research and development in the country over the next
three years, targeting primarily the domestic...
The market for smart pharma packaging will grow to $1.7bn (€1.3bn)
in 2013 from the current $21m, driven by the need for new clinical
trial compliance-and brand protection measures, according to a new
forecast report.
A new report suggests the increasing number of collaboration
between pharmaceutical and biotech companies is fuelled by a steep
decline in innovation levels as well as the growing threat from
generics and drug recalls.
PPD has announced it has signed an agreement with PDL BioPharma in
which the contract research organisation is to perform
comprehensive molecular profiling to discover biomarkers.
According to a new report, the pharmaceutical market grew seven per
cent, to $602 billion (€501 billion) in 2005. The report
highlighted the emerging markets including China, Korea, Mexico,
Russia and Turkey, which experienced double-digit...
A $30.1m drop in licence and research revenue and the expensive
removal by rebel shareholders of its former CEO Gerard Soula last
June have taken drug delivery company Flamel from a net profit of
$12.5m (€10.3m) in 2004 to a net loss...
AstraZeneca has pulled the plug on a long-running service contract
with PDI, adding another blow to the company who last week reported
a dive from profit to loss in 2005, with a net loss of nearly $20m
(€16m), versus net income of...
2005 was a challenging year for contract sales organisations (CSO),
with many downsizing their sales teams. However, In2Focus, is
bucking the industry trend, and increasing its headcount to meet
demand.
India is emerging as a powerhouse of pharmaceutical R&D. Backed
by a scientist president and with an army of talented scientists,
the country now has R&D capacity second only to the US, at
one-fifth of the cost.
Chiltern is expanding its clinical trial services business in
India, and in doing so will be the first company to provide
specialised staff recruitment services for the Indian clinical
research industry.
As China improves its resources and regulatory processes it will
soon become a hotbed of clinical drug research activity, and
position itself as one of the world's most important countries in
this field, according to a new report...
NovaScreen BioSciences introduces a new side effect panel, which
aims to improve procedures in identifying potential risk factors of
drug candidates, by incorporating a broader range of receptor
subtype assays, which target a broader...
Japanese health care firm Eisai will make Hatfield its European
headquarters, in a major £75 million (€105 million) investment that
demonstrates the UK's appeal for big pharmaceutical companies.
As pharma companies continue to search for new areas of business to
outsource, third party logistics (3PL) is an area tipped for
dramatic growth over the next four years, particularly in Europe
where the practice is still in its infancy,...
Taiwanese generic and contract manufacturer ScinoPharm has seen its
sales almost double for the last three years, from $5 m in 2002 to
$31m in 2005, fuelled by its booming active pharmaceutical
ingredient (API) business.
Drug companies are leaning more heavily on contract research
organisations (CROs) to save costs in getting new drugs to market.
And it is paying off, with added benefits. Companies who rely on
CROs are also completing clinical trials...
