Breaking News on Pharmaceutical Technology

EC GMP directive “still alive”; Cargill

19-Oct-2009 - The EC’s plan to make excipients comply with GMP is “still alive”, according to Cargill which spoke to in-PharmaTechnologist at CPhI about its Zerose erythritol product that it claims can improve compliance.

Critical gains funding for hGH nasal delivery

19-Oct-2009 - Critical Pharmaceuticals has received a £1.5m ($2.4m) award to develop its hGH nasal spray, the market for which could be sizeable as company’s attempt to differentiate in response to generic competition.

CPhI 2009 - Road to recovery?

15-Oct-2009 - As CPhI 2009 draws to a close we take a look back on the show, which, despite some negatives, appears to have been an overall success.

galenIQ 981 cuts coating time and extends shelf-life, says Beneo Palatinit

14-Oct-2009 - Beneo-Palatinit’s new galenIQ 981 excipient offers drugmakers a way of improving industrial processing, stability and shelf-life.

Dow launches flake PEG at CPhI

14-Oct-2009 - Dow Polyglycols and Surfactants is using CPhI 2009 in Madrid to launch Carbowax Sentry PEG in flake form, expanding the company's excipient range.

Heptares calls on Sygnature for discovery chemistry

12-Oct-2009 - Sygnature Chemical Services will provide synthetic chemistry services for Heptares Therapeutics GPCR drug development programme under a deal signed last week.

USP targets counterfeits in Cambodia

12-Oct-2009 - The USAID and USP have launched a campaign to tackle counterfeits in Cambodia and Greater Mekong Subregion, using a film to educate the population of the dangers of fakes and need to use legitimate pharmacies.

Labopharm upbeat about depression drug after FDA OKs API maker

08-Oct-2009 - Canadian drugmaker Labopharm says its Italian API maker Gruppo Angelini has resolved all the US FDA concerns about processes used to make a once-a day version of the depression drug trazodone.

News in brief

Colorcon asks Oracle to help cut costs

08-Oct-2009 - Drug excipients and coatings firm Colorcon says that adoption of Oracle’s “Enterprise Manager” platform will reduce IT downtime and costs.

Genentech licenses SurModics tech for SR Lucentis

07-Oct-2009 - Its new microparticle technology licensing deal with Genentech could be worth as much as $200m (€136m) says US delivery specialist SurModics.

GSK forms JV to expand in Chinese vaccine market

07-Oct-2009 - GSK and Walvax have entered into a long-term joint venture (JV) to serve the Chinese vaccine market, with the big pharma transferring technology to enable local production and building a manufacturing plant.

Hospira buys facility & filgrastim rights to boost biogenerics

06-Oct-2009 - Hospira has acquired the worldwide rights to filgrastim and a Croatian biologics plant from Pliva, increasing its presence in the biogenerics field, and told in-PharmaTechnologist that further expansions are possible.

Less potent heparin begins shipping on Thursday, says FDA

05-Oct-2009 - From Thursday onwards all formulations of the blood thinner heparin shipped in the US will be only 90 per cent the strength of previous version, according to the FDA.

News in brief

India’s formulation market worth $14bn by 2013, says Angel Broking

05-Oct-2009 - India’s drug formulation market will grow 12 per cent a year and be worth $13.7bn (€9.3bn) by 2013, according to new research by market analysts Angel Broking.

Ash Stevens starts $6m expansion

01-Oct-2009 - Buoyed by an increase in repeat business and deals with large pharma companies Ash Stevens has begun a $6m (€4.1m) expansion of its API manufacturing facility, with further phases planned to occur over the next six years.

BASF unveils Asia growth plan

01-Oct-2009 - German chemicals giant BASF wants to double the revenue it generates in the Asia-Pacific, with pharmaceuticals being one of the key markets in which it wants to expand.

News in brief

Dr Reddy’s withdraws oversized drugs in US

01-Oct-2009 - India pharmaceutical firm Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has voluntarily recalled four lots drugs in the US after testing revealed that some may contain oversized tablets.

Hovione's Loures plant gets latest FDA pre-approval nod

30-Sep-2009 - Portuguese API maker Hovione says its contract manufacturing plant in Loures has passed a pre-approval inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

News in brief

Camlin Fine Chemicals mulls API unit sale

28-Sep-2009 - The pharmaceutical division of Indian API maker Camlin Fine chemicals may be put up for sale by its parent company, stationary giant Camlin, after failing to expand.

Ampac bulks up API capacity with 3 LLC units

24-Sep-2009 - Ampac Fine Chemicals (AFC) has added three new commercial-scale Hastelloy liquid-liquid centrifuges to its API making business in a move that, it says, will increase batch size and lower manufacturing costs.

Philips collaborates to tackle cancer

24-Sep-2009 - Philips has entered into a joint research programme to evaluate ThermoDox with MR-HIFU, a combination therapy that could provide a precise, non-invasive way to treat difficult cancers.

Bio-Path licenses siRNA targeted delivery tech

23-Sep-2009 - Bio-Path Holdings has signed an exclusive licence to develop a liposomal tumour targeting technology that delivers antisense and FAK siRNA and cuts toxicity.

Synthetic PEG could cut interferon dosing requirements

22-Sep-2009 - Coupling interferon to a synthetic PEG molecule could increase the therapeutic’s dosing schedule from every other day to every one to two weeks, according to researchers who believe the technology has blockbuster potential.

News in brief

Corden fined over explosions at Irish plant

17-Sep-2009 - Corden Pharma has been fined and ordered to pay legal costs after it was prosecuted for health and safety offences following explosions at its facility in Little Island, Ireland, according to media reports.