Foreign drugmakers are failing to win ground against their local
counterparts in China, despite investing considerable sums in the
country over the last few years.
The pharmaceutical industry must tackle the issue of pricing
disparity between countries if it is to avoid having the matter
taken out of its hands by government-mandated price cuts and
parallel imports.
Reforms that demand the public disclosure of industry payments to
The National Institute of Health (NIH) employees are to be
introduced to crackdown on the violation of existing rules that
create a conflict of interest between the...
Sigma-Aldrich has boosted its capacity to supply pharmaceutical
ingredients with the purchase of Tetrionics, a company with a
strong position in the high growth area of high potency and
cytotoxic compounds.
After months of trying to find a partner for its pharmaceutical
division, Danish packaging company Superfos has abandoned the plan
and will retain the business, reports Phil Taylor.
PamGene International is to combine its microarray platform with
Jerini Peptide Technologies' (JPT) peptide libraries to create a
series of new products for kinase studies.
In the UK, the House of Commons Health Committee is to undertake a
broad-ranging inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical
industry on health policy, to look for conflicts between the need
for new drugs and commercial interests,...
Micap, a UK company specialising in using yeast cells to
encapsulate drugs, has entered into a collaboration with leading
medicated chewing gum company Fertin that should extend the range
of active ingredients that can be delivered...
Hovione of Portugal has teamed up with drug delivery company CyDex
to develop improved formulations of drugs that have lost or will
soon lose patent protection.
India's Jubilant Organosys has bought two companies in Belgium as
part of a drive to improve its presence in the European market for
generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Scottish biotech firm CXR biosciences and Edinburgh's Roslin
Institute have entered into a collaboration with Geron to develop a
new technique that promises to reduce the need to test drugs on
animals.
French ingredients company Roquette has been granted a US patent
for a way to make mannitol a suitable carrier excipient - or
pulverulent - for active pharmaceutical ingredients in hard filled
capsules, reports Phil Taylor.
The UK subsidiary of Japan's Yokogawa has introduced a new FT-NIR
(Fourier transform near infrared) analyser that runs as a
stand-alone system, with no need for an attached PC, making it
easier to install in a process environment.
Despite advances made in sustained delivery drug delivery
technologies in recent years, a problem still persists in trying to
obtain controlled release of a wide variety of medications that
have only a narrow absorption window in...
The well established Pharmaceutical Substances database of active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), published by Germany's Thieme,
is now available for the first time in an online format.
The Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD) of US chemicals firm
Solutia is planning a charge into the market for supplying drug
conjugates, which are becoming more and more common in the
treatment of diseases such as cancer.
Innercap Technologies has developed a new capsule drug delivery
system that makes it possible to combine two incompatible drug
compounds into a single dosage unit.
Danish ingredients company Chr Hansen has ramped up its production
capacity in the US for its pharmaceutical products via a $10
million (€8.2m) expansion of its facilities in Stoughton in the US.
German generics producer Schwarz Pharma has licensed rights to a
drug delivery technology developed by US company Lipocine, to
revamp its pipeline in the face of competitive threats to its
biggest product.
India's Ajanta Pharma has said that it may re-enter the market for
bulk manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs),
despite pulling out of the sector in the late 1990s.
Banner Pharmaceuticals has developed a new oral delivery
formulation that is designed to make it easier to dose drugs to
children and the elderly and to take medications on the go,
writes Phil Taylor.
Japanese drug companies Yamanouchi and Fujisawa have said that the
entity to be created via their merger next year will be called
Astellas Pharma, drawing on a Japanese word that means 'shine on
tomorrow'.
US drug delivery company SCOLR has been knocked back by the
decision by one of its partners not to go ahead with a project
based on its technology. But the company insists it will go it
alone in tackling the pharmaceutical sector.
German pharmaceutical and chemicals supplier Merck KGaA has set up
a new business unit to try and establish how some of the company's
pigments can be used as brand protection technologies.
Automated systems provider RTS LIFE Science International is to
launch SmaRTStore, an automated sample management system designed
for customers that do not have the large-scale requirements, or
budget, of the big pharmaceutical companies,...
Avecia Pharmaceuticals has consolidated its position in the
evolving Japanese pharmaceutical market by forging a technology
agreement with a local company,reports Phil Taylor.
Computer giant IBM claims to have identified seven key technologies
that will drive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry over the
next decade, raise the quality of development and manufacturing
processes and slash the pre-launch...
The company Evotec OAI, a drug discovery and development solution
provider to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries has
announced the successful expansion of their in vitro and in silico
ADMET (Adsorption, Distribution,...
In March 2004, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals such as
prescription painkillers and other drugs at risk of abuse were
required to start using radiofrequency identification tags on all
pallets destined for retail giant Wal-Mart, almost...
A new patch product in clinical trials could provide a
patient-friendly means of delivering the only drug treatment for
osteoporosis that can actually replace lost bone, reports Phil
Taylor.
The cost and time required to develop a new drug and bring it to
market is determined by the therapeutic category of that drug. The
results are consistent with the model that predicts R&D efforts
are generally shifting toward...
Drug companies, distributors or wholesalers sitting on a pile of
expired medicines should be able to dispose of them safely using a
new shredding system launched by Security Engineered Machinery.
Scottish pharmaceutical company Strakan has started a Phase I trial
of a testosterone product that should overcome the limitations of
delivering the drug by mouth.
St Louis, USA-based KV Pharmaceutical says that the US District
Court for the District of Minnesota has denied a motion for a
preliminary injunction by two rival drug delivery companies in a
patent dispute centring on its technology...
A formulation of the steroid drug budesonide, made using a
solubility technology developed by US company CyDex, has
outperformed one of the leading drugs for asthma on the market in a
preclinical study.
Swedish company Cypak has started two trials of its Intelligent
Pharmaceutical Packaging (IPP) technology, which offers an
alternative to radiofrequency identification (RFID) for tracking
the use of medicines.
Novartis Consumer Health has launched two of its OTC flu remedies
in portable dissolvable strips, thought to be the first such
products to use the novel delivery format.
Ireland's Elan Corp has signed up another heavyweight partner -
Switzerland's Roche - for its NanoCrystals technology, designed to
improve the solubility of drug compounds.
IntelliChem, a developer of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN)
for the drug discovery and development industry, has launched a new
ELN platform that can be used right across any pharmaceutical or
biotechnology company.
The Netherlands-based pharmaceuticals, coatings and chemicals firm
Akzo Nobel has posted a 7 per cent rise in net income to €176
million for the first quarter of 2004, a little more than expected,
but has warned that its pharmaceuticals...
UK-based Inpharmatica is to provide a full range of ADME services
to drug discovery company Biotica Technology under a new two-year
agreement signed this week.
US water-soluble films company MonoSol has bought the UK division
of Aquafilm, giving it access to substantial manufacturing
capabilities in Europe and its range of edible films, report
Phil Taylor and Dominique Patton.
UK fine chemical company Ultrafine is to be acquired by
Sigma-Aldrich of the US in a move aimed at strengthening the
latter's offerings for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
India's Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals has set up a company
specialising in the contract manufacture of active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs) and intermediates that is specifically aimed at
winning business from foreign...
Cobra Biomanufacturing has granted AstraZeneca the right to use its
proprietary DNA manufacturing process to make nucleic acids for use
in its drug discovery operations.
UK-based packaging company Rexam has provided further evidence of
its commitment to the pharmaceutical sector with the purchase of
Plastic Omnium Medical, a company specialising in plastic
components for medical devices.
Daiichi Pharmaceutical is to set up a new manufacturing subsidiary
in a bid to profit from forthcoming Japanese legislation that makes
it easier for firms to produce drugs for third parties.
