The Challenge of Change - Managing Excipients Control
Colorcon
18-Apr-2005 - YM BioSciences is to acquire Canadian drug delivery company Delex Therapeutics and build its position in new drugs for cancer patients.
18-Apr-2005 - UK chemicals group Avecia is planning to close its biotechnology centre at Grangemouth, Scotland, by the end of the summer, resulting in the loss of 95 jobs, reports Phil Taylor.
14-Apr-2005 - Novartis has acquired a global license to a combination drug and inhaler device for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in one of the largest deals signed by the UK biotechnology sector, reports Phil Taylor.
14-Apr-2005 - Dutch biotechnology company Crucell has won a €21.4 million contract to produce a vaccine against Ebola for the US government's Vaccine Research Centre, reports Phil Taylor.
14-Apr-2005 - Scientists have hailed an experimental drug, which fights tumours linked to two faulty genes in breast cancer, as a breakthrough in the fight against cancer. Animal tests have shown the drug prevents the growth of tumours so effectively that clinical trials are scheduled to begin on humans.
13-Apr-2005 - BioProgress has seen its share price slump nearly 40 per cent this morning on concerns that it would miss its financial targets, reports Phil Taylor.
12-Apr-2005 - Merrion Pharmaceuticals, formed last year from the drug delivery business of Ireland's Elan, has been awarded a key European on the technology underlying one of its delivery systems, reports Phil Taylor.
12-Apr-2005 - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is to acquire the entire business of fellow Indian pharmaceutical company MJ Pharmaceuticals in another example of the consolidation affecting the country's fragmented pharmaceutical sector, writes Phil Taylor.
11-Apr-2005 - New web based software, which can extract potentially life-saving knowledge from data in minutes, has bioinformatic research applications that could prove essential to laboratory technicians wanting to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
11-Apr-2005 - The US Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban the use of chlorofluorocarbon propellants in albuterol metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) from the end of 2008 will effectively mean the market will revert to one of branded rather than generic drugs and more than double in size, according to Datamonitor.
11-Apr-2005 - Several Indian manufacturers of bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) have lost an appeal in the country's Supreme Court which could see them liable for hefty repayments to the government.
08-Apr-2005 - Scientists, paving the way for new treatments against Malaria, have discovered a genetic "camouflage" with which the malaria parasite hides itself from the immune system of the host. The findings could lead to the development of new drugs for a disease that causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths each year, most of them in developing countries.
07-Apr-2005 - The chemicals subsidiary of Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim is expanding its manufacturing capacity for the nasal decongestant phenylephrine hydrochloride to tap into what it said is growing demand worldwide.
07-Apr-2005 - A new signature genetics tool, which allows doctors to personalise drug therapy, could well have the potential to personalise a patient's drug regimen based on his/her genetic makeup to minimise side effects and maximise drug efficacy.
06-Apr-2005 - Two UK companies have joined forces to tackle the fast-growing contract synthesis market for peptide and protein drugs.
06-Apr-2005 - Japan's KSL Co and Kagoshima University have co-developed a method of boosting the efficacy of transdermal drug delivery via the application of ultrasound.
06-Apr-2005 - Belgian chemicals company Solvay is planning to expand its production of sodium bicarbonate to improve supplies into the European market, reports Phil Taylor.
04-Apr-2005 - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set the end of 2008 as its deadline for the complete phase-out of albuterol inhalers using ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as propellants, reports Phil Taylor.
04-Apr-2005 - Researchers have identified a serine protease inhibitor as a novel candidate susceptibility gene for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The discovery has major implications, especially in smokers, where the role of the cell protease inhibitor in the lung was previously unrecognised.
04-Apr-2005 - Researchers have identified several proteins on the surface of cancer cells that contribute to the cells' ability to metastasise. The finding provides unique drug targets to prevent the cancer spread and a basis for which new drug treatments can be formulated.
01-Apr-2005 - Serono of Switzerland is planning to expand its billion dollar multiple sclerosis franchise with a new version of interferon beta that would do away with the need for injections, reports Phil Taylor.
01-Apr-2005 - US researchers have found a compound, TAK-187, is significantly more effective than the current treatment for Chagas disease, a parasitic infection in Central and South America and Mexico, that can infect almost 650,000 people annually, resulting in 13,000 deaths.
31-Mar-2005 - REPLICor is developing a broad spectrum antiviral drug, which has the broadest spectrum of activity in vitro ever reported for a single chemical entity and has proved to have a devastating action on the herpes viruses, influenza and hemorrhagic viruses including Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever.
31-Mar-2005 - Croatian pharmaceutical company Pliva has forged another partnership in the generic biopharmaceutical sector, linking up with US firm Barr Laboratories to develop a generic version of Amgen's white blood cell stimulator Neupogen (filgrastim).
30-Mar-2005 - US company SurModics is evaluating a biodegradeable polymer technology, developed at Rutgers University, that could improve the delivery of drugs into the eye.