The Challenge of Change - Managing Excipients Control
Colorcon
27-Jun-2005 - The pharmaceutical industry faces an uncertain future in which high clinical development costs coupled with declining drug discovery success rates are causing efficiency levels to fall, halting the flow of new products in the R&D pipeline.
27-Jun-2005 - Belgian chemicals and pharmaceuticals company Solvay has launched a bid to acquire at least a 51 per cent stake in German pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients company Girindus, reports Phil Taylor.
27-Jun-2005 - In the US, the New York Senate last week passed that would prohibit the administration of any vaccine containing more than a trace amount of mercury to children under the age of three or pregnant women.
23-Jun-2005 - Reaxa, a new catalyst technologies company, has formally commenced trading following a successful spin-out from UK-headquartered chemicals company Avecia, reports Phil Taylor.
23-Jun-2005 - Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) has announced positive results of its human anti-IL13 monoclonal antibody, to be used as a potential treatment for severe asthma. The Phase I clinical trial of CAT-354 represents research towards areas of unmet medical need.
22-Jun-2005 - BASF, the world's largest chemical company, and Seppic, an offshoot of Air Liquide Healthcare, have embarked on a strategic cooperation to jointly develop and market coating systems for film coating of tablets in the drug industry.
22-Jun-2005 - Israeli drug company Intec Pharma has published a results of a clinical trial showing that its drug delivery platform can extend the release of an active ingredient in the upper gastrointestinal tract for more than six hours and double its absorption.
22-Jun-2005 - Croatian pharmaceutical company Pliva has won its first European approval for generic erythropoietin, a biologic drug used for the treatment of low red blood cell counts, reports Phil Taylor.
20-Jun-2005 - Australian drug delivery company Acrux, which specialises in administering medicines through the skin, has reported clinical results of a contraceptive for women in the form of a spray, reports Phil Taylor.
20-Jun-2005 - Indian pharmaceutical company Matrix Laboratories is aiming to buy a 22 per cent controlling stake in Belgium's Docpharma in what is the largest overseas acquisition yet in India's drug industry, reports Phil Taylor.
17-Jun-2005 - Researchers have claimed that a fragment of the deadly yellow fever virus may hold the key to a safer and more effective vaccine, bringing hope to the 200,000 victims a year. Currently, no drug treatment is effective against the virus.
16-Jun-2005 - UK pharmaceutical company ML Laboratories has acquired Quadrant Technologies, a company specialising in drug formulation and stabilisation, for £46.7 million (€70m), boosting its capabilities in the development of inhaled medicines, reports Phil Taylor.
15-Jun-2005 - Scientists have created the nanotechnology equivalent of a Trojan horse to smuggle a powerful chemotherapeutic drug inside tumour cells - increasing the drug's cancer-killing activity and reducing its toxic side effects.
15-Jun-2005 - India's Malladi Drugs and Pharmaceuticals has acquired a US company to boost its presence in the market for pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used in cough and cold preparations, reports Phil Taylor.
14-Jun-2005 - Australia's Nufarm has sold SEAC, the fine chemicals custom manufacturing business it acquired in 1988, to recently-formed Minakem Holdings for €23 million.
13-Jun-2005 - An inhaled formulation of insulin developed by MannKind has been shown to mimic the normal insulin response after a meal and reduce glucose levels sooner than conventional insulin injections, reports Phil Taylor.
13-Jun-2005 - The founder, chairman and chief executive of French drug delivery company Flamel Technologies has been lambasted by disgruntled shareholders who want to bring in a new management team, writes Phil Taylor.
09-Jun-2005 - Pharmaceutical company Novartis has started building a pilot plant at its Stein site near Basel in Switzerland to supply sterile dosage forms for clinical trials.
09-Jun-2005 - An opportunity to develop drugs by targeting a recently discovered, and potentially vulnerable, intermediate stage of the viral life cycle, could result in a new pharmaceutical treatment in the fight against HIV and other similar microbes.
09-Jun-2005 - An inhaled formulation of the widely-used immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine has been deemed safe by a US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee, but the jury is still out over the efficacy of the treatment, reports Phil Taylor.
08-Jun-2005 - Lanxess is to transform its fine chemicals business out into a legally-discrete subsidiary as part of a programme to increase its competitiveness in the market for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals, reports Phil Taylor.
08-Jun-2005 - Taiwanese company Panion & BF Biotech has been awarded a US patent on high-grade ferric citrate that could be used as an active pharmaceutical ingredient for the treatment of iron deficiency diseases, renal failure and elevated blood phosphate, reports Phil Taylor.
08-Jun-2005 - A drug delivery system that promises to improve the treatment of a range of eye diseases, in development at French pharmaceutical company Novagali Pharma, has won a Kaye Innovation Award.
07-Jun-2005 - Chinese vitamin C manufacturers are preparing their defence to an anti-trust case filed by two American firms that allege price-fixing and control of the market since 2001, writes Dominique Patton.
06-Jun-2005 - Researchers have identified the first gene in patients who have epilepsy, which is associated with a movement disorder. The study provides the first direct genetic evidence that the co-existence of these conditions represents a new syndrome.