The Challenge of Change - Managing Excipients Control
Colorcon
08-Nov-2004 - A new study has revealed that a commonly used asthma medication lost more than half its potency after being kept for just four hours in conditions akin to a mailbox on a hot day. This raises questions about the efficacy of mail-order drugs, and suggests improved packaging may be required to tackle the problem.
08-Nov-2004 - Printing solutions specialist Zebra Technologies, a specialist in radio frequency identification (RFID) labels, has launched two new UHF (ultra high frequency) EPC (electronic product code) multi- protocol printer/encoders, the Zebra R110Xi and R170Xi.
08-Nov-2004 - RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics to combat human illnesses such as Huntingdon's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and hepatitis C are set to fuel the rapid growth in the RNAi research product market over the next year.
03-Nov-2004 - The budget committee of Italy's Lower House of Parliament has approved a plan by the opposition to require the national medicines agency, the AIFA, to draw up a method of establishing 'optimal' packaging for drugs to treat major diseases, reports the official AGI news agency.
03-Nov-2004 - The shrink sleeve label is a staple of the food and beverage industry, but has not been widely adopted for pharmaceutical use. However, this could change as the technology has child-resistance properties that could be of value in packaging drugs.
02-Nov-2004 - US drug giant Pfizer, has signed a license agreement to market a specific class of non-hormonal drugs to treat the hot flushes associated with menopause. The new drug,currently in development, is set to become the first of its kind on the market and is certain to be a welcome alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which has been linked to breast cancer.
29-Oct-2004 - Pharmasset of the US could receive funding of $168 million (€131.8m) in upfront and milestone payments - with the prospect of receiving more - after licensing its preclinical hepatitis C drug programme to Swiss drug giant Roche.
27-Oct-2004 - Sun Chemical has increased the price of all packaging inks and coatings by three to seven per cent this month, blaming rising petrochemical costs that could affect the entire packaging industry for the next couple of years.
27-Oct-2004 - UK-based packaging giant Rexam has launched a new child-resistant closure designed specifically for use in the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets.
26-Oct-2004 - A pilot study organised by Accenture to explore the value of implementing radiofrequency identification (RFID) and electronic product code (EPC) technology in the pharmaceutical industry has concluded that there are numerous benefits.
25-Oct-2004 - Regen Therapeutics (ReGen) announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Guildford Clinical Pharmacology Unit Limited (GCPUL) confirming its strategy to develop its medical service revenue generating business and developing its Alzheimers treatment, Colostrinin.
22-Oct-2004 - Finnish packaging giant Huhtamaki has reported flat sales figures in the third quarter of 2004 due to adverse currency translations and high raw material costs.
22-Oct-2004 - Drug company Merck, has presented data this week showing its latest arthrirtis drug, Arcoxia, a treatment in the same class as its recently withdrawn Vioxx, displays no significant difference in the number of serious side effects than those treated with a common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).
20-Oct-2004 - Ciba has launched a number of innovative products for the plastics industry including environmentally friendly additives designed to increase the lifespan of plastic.
19-Oct-2004 - Pfizer has called on the services of an Australian technology company to create a metallised packaging for its Sudafed brand of cough/cold products that does not come with an environmental price tag.
18-Oct-2004 - A new biotechnology company - Peakadilly - has been set up in Belgium to provide molecular diagnostic tools to guide the development of new drugs. The company maintains that the tools will make drug development more efficient, effective and economical, writes Phil Taylor.
18-Oct-2004 - Rexam, which makes pharmaceutical packaging and is also the world's largest manufacturer of aluminium cans, has sacked chief executive Stefan Angwald after just five months on the job.
18-Oct-2004 - Hueck Folien, one of the largest European foil converters in the flexible packaging sector, has introduced an aluminium lidding foil which is sealable against Aclar, a widely used material in blister films.
14-Oct-2004 - Giving patients control of analgesic medications through the use of controllable pumps improves pain relief, but raises the risk of harm more than 3.5 times, according to the US Pharmacopeia's Centre for the Advancement of Patient Safety.
13-Oct-2004 - Retailers should let suppliers meet upcoming RFID mandate deadlines at a gradual pace to avoid creating a tag shortage or costing them a fortune, says a prominent think-tank.
12-Oct-2004 - A report that focuses on Alzheimer's Disease and the crop of new drugs to treat it, cites neuroprotection as a potential treatment that may become more effective than the host of symptomatic treatments currently available.
12-Oct-2004 - Sigpack Systems has introduced a new packaging line that it claims can achieve a 50 per cent performance increase, using reduced material costs and a return on investment in just six months.
11-Oct-2004 - Japanese pharmaceutical company, Takeda, has entered into collaboration with Bionumerik Pharmaceuticals, with the intention of marketing Bionumerik's Tavocept (dimensa), a chemoprotective drug that relieves the neurotherapy commonly associated with chemotherapy.
11-Oct-2004 - A report cites an emerging trend within the pharmaceutical industry that focuses on the human proteome and in turn, gene expression. The findings are certain to play a future in the discovery of protein-based biomarkers and hence determine the direction of drug discovery, molecular diagnostics, and personalized medicine.
11-Oct-2004 - Despite the protestations of suppliers, the cost of passive tags used for radiofrequency identification (RFID) will not fall as low as 5 cents per unit, and is more likely to be at the 16 cent level, according to a recently published report by ARC Advisory Group.