Industry, innovation & Viagra-stuffed teddies at AAPS

22-Nov-2010 - Last week everything from co-processed excipients to Viagra-stuffed teddies were discussed at AAPS 2010. Now, with the show having finished, we present our personal take on the event.

Partnerships needed to beat public health counterfeit threat

17-Nov-2010 - Combatting counterfeit drugs through forging stronger partnerships is beyond profit, it is about saving lives, AstraZeneca principal scientist Dr Michael Claybourn told a workshop on global drug quality at the AAPS annual meeting in New Orleans.

USP building database of fake & substandard meds

16-Nov-2010 - The USP is building a database of counterfeit essential medicines to support international drug procurement organisations, such as WHO, and the timely sharing of information between national regulators.

Group forms for serialisation & ePedigree compliance

04-Nov-2010 - Collaboration between four companies is supporting clients’ serialisation and ePedigree needs to ensure patient safety, prevent counterfeiting and limit diversion.

Visualisation of FDA overseas inspections by year & type

03-Nov-2010 - in-PharmaTechnologist presents interactive charts visualising FDA overseas inspections by type and year, as well as the proportion of sites that may never have been inspected.

Anti-fake readiness a factor for emerging biotech buyers

02-Nov-2010 - Biopharm are increasingly assessing the threat counterfeiting and diversion pose to emerging biotechs when planning an acquisition, according to a white paper.

Overseas FDA offices bring benefits but planning needed

28-Oct-2010 - Overseas FDA offices have realised immediate benefits but strategic planning is needed to ensure the ventures, critical aspects of the agency’s ability to ensure drug quality, are long-term successes according to the GAO.

FDA may never have inspected 88 per cent of Chinese sites

27-Oct-2010 - The FDA may never have inspected 88 per cent of the 920 Chinese facilities in its inventory, according to the GAO.

Exclusive interview

Rx-360 membership to “snowball” as it prioritises growth

26-Oct-2010 - Rx-360 expects membership numbers to “snowball” in the coming year as it looks to build on progress made in establishing the consortium.

USP and MENA government labs form Network to better drug quality

25-Oct-2010 - The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and six government drug control laboratories in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) join to launch a drug quality improvement Network.

WHO begins prequalification programme for selected APIs

21-Oct-2010 - The WHO is today initiating a pilot prequalification programme for selected APIs used in drugs for HIV and related diseases, antimalarials and anti-tuberculosis medications.

Microscan adds track and trace label verification system

19-Oct-2010 - Microscan has introduced a system for inspecting and verifying package label content that can be implemented with the minimum of cost and effort.

Week-long anti-counterfeiting effort confiscates 1m pills

19-Oct-2010 - A week of global anti-counterfeiting law enforcement coordinated by Interpol led to the shutdown of 290 websites, seizure of 11,000 packages and confiscation of 1m pills.

FDA & WHO collaborate on surveillance of counterfeit drugs

14-Oct-2010 - The FDA is to collaborate with the WHO to build a global surveillance and monitoring system for combating falsified medicines and breaches of the supply chain.

Exclusive interview

Biopharm sees large future for media enhanced packaging

14-Oct-2010 - Biopharm sees a large future for packaging containing digital codes that can link mobile devices to content, according to Catalent.

Exclusive interview

Falsified APIs and gangsters in the pharma industry

12-Oct-2010 - Guy Villax, board member of the EFCG, talks falsified APIs, EU efforts to tackle the issue, and the presence of gangsters in the pharma industry in an in-PharmaTechnologist video interview.

US FTC OKs Rx-360 audits

20-Sep-2010 - The US FTC has given a positive advisory opinion to Rx-360’s shared audits and said the programme appears to offer “cognisable cost-saving and safety enhancing features”.

NQR for counterfeit detection on factory floor and at pharmacy

13-Sep-2010 - Scientists say counterfeit drug and ingredient detection using NQR could benefit both manufacturers and pharmacies.

Verayo, SkyeTek join for low-cost RFID authentication

09-Sep-2010 - Verayo and SkyeTek have partnered with GlobalPCCA to provide a low-cost RFID authentication system to fight counterfeits in Africa.

Swedish team use bomb detection tech to spot fake drugs

07-Sep-2010 - Drugmakers may soon have a soon be able to identify fake pharmaceuticals using a new technique based on principals originally developed to detect explosives

License adds anti-counterfeiting tech to ATL pharma labels

10-Aug-2010 - Label manufacturer ATL has licensed anti-counterfeiting technologies from Document Security Systems (DSS) to meet growing demand from pharma clients.

Bill strengthening FDA drug safety power enters congress

04-Aug-2010 - A bill to strengthen drug safety requirements and FDA powers has been introduced into the US congress.

Oracle adds ePedigree system to secure supply chain

28-Jul-2010 - Oracle has introduced an integrated mass-serialisation and pedigree application to improve pharma supply chain integrity.

Grant awarded for non-invasive counterfeit detection

27-Jul-2010 - Research into the use of quadrupole resonance spectroscopy (QR) for non-invasive, non-destructive detection of counterfeits has been boosted by a grant.