Scolr Pharma has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Dr Reddy's Laboratories to pursue the development and commercialisation of an undisclosed oral prescription drug for potential in the cardiopulmonary market.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dr Reddy's will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and marketing of the product, while Scolr Pharma will be responsible for the formulation and assisting with product scale-up activities. Scolr Pharma's CDT Technology will be used in the development of the drug.
The agreement provides double digit participation in net profits for Scolr Pharma after recovery of development and commercialisation expenses associated with the product. Other financial terms were undisclosed.
"We are very pleased that Dr Reddy's has chosen to establish a relationship with Scolr Pharma and has recognised the strength of our drug formulation platform," Scolr Pharma president and chief executive Daniel Wilds said.
"Our research has demonstrated the applicability of our CDT Technology to improve the release profile and increase the oral bioavailability of poorly soluble existing and new drug compounds."
A US advisory panel has recommended that cough and cold medicines should not be given to children under the age of six.
The recommendation follows last week's meeting of experts to discuss the safety of cough and cold medicines in children, which comes after several major drug-makers voluntarily recalled their products for under two-year-olds as a precautionary measure against overdosing on the drugs.
Following a recent assessment of data by US officials, which suggested "rare instances of misuse" occurred in children under the age of two, it was recommended that cough and cold drug labels carry stronger language advising parents the medicine should not be used for children under the age of two to prevent such incidents of misuse.
Now the advisory panel has suggested manufacturers need to conduct further clinical trials to show the drugs are efficacious in children, while it recommended that children under two should not use products that contain antihistamines, decongestants and antitussives.
Dutch researcher Roelof Mol has combined two techniques, previously deemed incompatible, to improve the purity of medicines.
The extra quality control mechanism combines the separation technique electrokinetic chromatography with the detection technique mass spectroscopy.
Mol used the technique to analyse contaminants in pharmaceutical samples and found it proved possible to measure contaminants in medicines to within the 0.1 percent (m/m) level thereby satisfying all official sensitivity requirements.
The standard technique for determining harmful contaminants in medicines is high pressure liquid chromatography.
Solvay and Organon have expressed interest in the system.
Genzyme has launched its cardiovascular product Cholestagel (colesevelam hydrochloride) in Europe.
Cholestagel is a polymer in tablet form that lowers LDL (or "bad") cholesterol and is aimed at treating patients with primary hypercholesterolemia who cannot meet their targeted cholesterol levels with standard therapies alone.
It works by binding bile acids in the intestine, impeding their reabsorption.
Colesevelam has been approved in the US since 2000, where it is marketed by Daiichi Sankyo under the trade name WelChol.
Meanwhile, Actavis has launched its generic fentanyl patch for severe chronic pain in Finland, Sweden and Poland.
The product has already been launched in six other countries.
The fentanyl patch, the generic equivalent of Alza Janssen's Duragesic, delivers consistent and reliable pain relief for 72 hours.
Avant Immunotherapeutics and Celldex Therapeutics are to merge to create a fully-integrates and diversified biopharmaceutical company.
In 2008, the combined company will have three compounds in mid to late stage clinical development and six additional candidates in earlier stage development.
The pipeline will be fuelled through the use of Celldex's APC Targeting Technology, which utilises human monoclonal antibody technology to directly target the immune system, and Avant's vector vaccine delivery, manufacturing and preservation technologies.
The merger, which is still contingent on a vote of approval by Avant's current shareholders, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.
Reliable Biopharmaceutical Corporation (RBC) has been acquired by Med Opportunity Partners, an operating orientated private equity firm.
The move gives RBC, a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for generic injectable drugs, a strong push into the generic injectable market place.
"We are excited to invest in RBC at this time," Med Opportunity Partners and new RBC chairman Jim Breckenridge said.
"Over the next several years $5.5bn of non-biological injectable drugs will be coming off patent and a far greater dollar amount of biological injectable drug patents will expire. RBC is well positioned to be a major beneficiary of this overall generic explosion."
Details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, Recip AB is to be acquired by Meda for SEK 2.65bn (€288.1m).
Under the terms of the agreement, Meda will take over the existing Recip AB sales and organisation and will obtain product rights, trademarks and rights to the Recip name. Recipharm, a production company, will continue as a contract manufacturer for Meda and is not part of the deal.
The acquisition, which still requires approval, is expected to contribute sales of about SEK 850m (€92.4m) into Meda's operations during 2008.
Finally, Novozymes Biopharma will be opening a sales office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to help provide a global customer base for the company's biopharmaceutical ingredients.
Novozymes biopharmaceutical ingredients range has been developed exclusively for industrial cell culture and protein drug formulation.
