06-Sep-2006 - Researchers gathered in the south of France to discuss how the pharmaceutical industry can embrace lipid-based drug delivery as a viable alternative to traditional formulation approaches.
05-Sep-2006 - After selling a manufacturing plant in Texas to Cardinal Health two years ago, Adams Respiratory Therapeutics has reacquired the facility in order to produce its expectorant Mucinex (guaifenesin extended-release), responding to a 15-fold growth in sales in the last couple of years.
29-Aug-2006 - Canadian contract manufacturer Patheon has teamed up with specialty pharmaceutical firm Depomed to offer its clients a controlled release formulation which can grant their drugs increased bioavailability and less frequent dosing.
29-Aug-2006 - Biopharmaceutical firm Altus has asked contract manufacturer Althea to produce Phase III quantities of a crystallised formulation of human growth hormone (hGH) which can be administered subcutaneously weekly instead of daily.
23-Aug-2006 - Rexam, the world's largest beverage can maker, has bought Indian pharmaceutical packaging firm Truepack for £5m (€7.3m), hungry for a slice of the country's growing pharma market.
21-Aug-2006 - Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease are one step closer to receiving Novartis's Exelon as a transdermal patch instead of a capsule following an international clinical study which showed that the new delivery method reduces side effects without compromising on efficacy.
17-Aug-2006 - Dendreon has finished the construction of its New Jersey manufacturing facility which it will use to produce its investigational active cellular immunotherapy for advanced prostate cancer, hoping to be the first to bring it to patients.
17-Aug-2006 - Albany Molecular Research (AMRI) has announced a multi-year drug substance manufacturing agreement with New River Pharmaceuticals, as its attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicine looks set to hit the market.
16-Aug-2006 - The convenience of non-invasive insulin delivery methods is set to overcome their high cost and concerns about safety and efficacy, with the greatest beneficiary being the European inhaled insulin market which is predicted to swell from $49.3m (€38.5m) in 2006 to $611.7m in 2012, according to two new market reports from Frost & Sullivan.
14-Aug-2006 - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has censured three American national pharmacies for using the traditional practice of compounding as a ruse in order to operate as drug manufacturers, producing thousands of unapproved copies of commercially available nebuliser medications that do not meet good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards.
10-Aug-2006 - Drug manufacturers are increasingly turning to specialised providers of analytical services for the solid state characterisation of their formulations, seeking answers to processing issues, drug delivery challenges and even protecting drug patents.
10-Aug-2006 - When selecting a pharmaceutical formulation, the conventional wisdom has been to manipulate a drug delivery platform to make it compatible with a drug's properties, yet the opposite approach may have several benefits if enough thought is put into it early in the development process, according to Brookwood's chief scientific officer.
09-Aug-2006 - The excipients used in a protein formulation and the method of production can impact not just the physical and chemical stability of biologics but also their in vitro and in vivo performance, cautions Durect's executive director of biopharmaceutical R&D.
08-Aug-2006 - West Pharmaceutical Services has reported a huge surge in both sales and profits for its second quarter, spurred on by the increasing demand for injectable drugs as well as the lucrative Exubera manufacturing contract, which helped double sales for the segment, although failed to stop a fall in profit margin.
08-Aug-2006 - Niro Pharma Systems has launched a new spray-drying nozzle to produce commercial quantities of fine powder drugs for inhalation.
03-Aug-2006 - More and more drugmakers are turning to health care companies not just for their drug delivery technologies but also for their regulatory and manufacturing expertise, asking them to take their product from early stages all the way to post-approval.
02-Aug-2006 - Even with the most advanced analytical equipment, elucidating the complete conformational characteristics of proteins still represents mission impossible, often making their formulation problematic, yet there are always ways to improve their pharmacokinetic properties, according to Octoplus's chief scientific officer.
01-Aug-2006 - Most pharmaceutical companies know little about how to make biopharmaceuticals on a large scale and so they need to develop in-house expertise as well as outsource several steps in their production chain, advises the head of chemistry and production at Genzyme Pharmaceuticals.
31-Jul-2006 - Partnerships in drug delivery need to fairly reflect the risk all parties take but there must also be a champion to drive the project forward, according to Pfizer's director of drug delivery.
27-Jul-2006 - Aegis Therapeutics has unveiled a new formulation technology employing non-toxic excipients that maintain the physical stability and physiological activity of protein and peptide therapeutics while reducing immunogenicity.
26-Jul-2006 - BASF has unveiled new pharmaceutical auxiliaries which release active ingredients more quickly, particularly when it comes to small tablets.
17-Jul-2006 - US scientists have discovered that sugar and olive oil do not just belong in the kitchen - but could potentially be used to develop naturally-derived nanomaterials for drug delivery systems and biological scaffolds.
13-Jul-2006 - Malvern Instruments has acquired Spectral Dimensions, a provider of near infrared (NIR) chemical imaging instrumentation and software, seeking products that can enhance pharmaceutical formulation and manufacturing processes.
12-Jul-2006 - Takeda Pharmaceutical has jumped at the chance to use a new technology that its developer, Spherics, claims can improve the efficacy of a drug while reducing side effects, providing more consistent drug levels and enhancing compliance.
10-Jul-2006 - In the face of generic competition, Abbott has asked Irish biotechnology firm Elan to use its NanoCrystal technology to develop an "all in one" oral dose formulation combining two cholesterol drugs, AstraZeneca's Crestor and Abbott's Tricor, as demand for combination therapy, now 15 per cent of the cholesterol market, continues to grow.