Outsourcing-Pharma.com special focus

Inyx drama highlights crucial need for due diligence on contractors

31-Oct-2007 - There are lessons to be learned about the importance of rigorous due diligence of pharma contractors, now that Inyx' customers are facing possible supply issues and a scramble to find...

Once-weekly diabetes treatment looking good

31-Oct-2007 - A once-weekly Type II diabetes treatment has shown promise when compared to its twice-daily counterpart.

Covance posts healthy 3Q growth

31-Oct-2007 - Covance is feeling positive after reporting healthy growth in both business units for the third quarter, with its early phase segment continuing to have the edge over its late stage...

Premature ejaculation spray coming to clinical climax

31-Oct-2007 - A nifty spray-on solution could make all the difference for men plagued with the problem of climaxing too soon, as the product makes its final thrust in clinical development.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: people on the move

31-Oct-2007 - Pfizer, Savient Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals, NPS Pharmaceuticals and MicroCHIPS have all had people on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Nycomed to acquire Bradley

31-Oct-2007 - Nycomed is to acquire Bradley Pharmaceuticals for $346m (€240m) in a bid to make a niche for itself in the dermatology market.

Applied Biosystems and Celera return first quarter profits

30-Oct-2007 - Applied Biosystems (ABI) saw 5 per cent revenue growth during its first quarter of fiscal 2008 as sister company Celera posted revenue growth of 57 per cent.

Thermo Fisher Scientific reports record Q3 results

30-Oct-2007 - Thermo Fisher Scientific saw revenues for the third quarter of 2007 rise to $2.4bn (€1.7bn) with its Analytical Technologies division growing 12 per cent with quarterly sales of $1.04bn.

Industry news in brief - week 44

30-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic round up of industry news, with developments at Barloworld Scientific, Beckman Coulter, Harvard Biosciences, Inverness, Nonlinear Dynamics, Oxford Biomedica and ThalesNano.

Thermo continues fishing in India

30-Oct-2007 - Thermo Fisher Scientific continues to fish for new opportunities in India and has begun setting up a new clinical services base in the country.

Another safety scare for Roche

30-Oct-2007 - In another safety concern over a long-approved drug, Roche has been forced to add new warnings to its anti-transplant rejection drug CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil (MMF)) amid the news that it...

Outsourcing-Pharma.com special focus

Karma for big pharma? Sanofi-Aventis caught out by Inyx collapse

30-Oct-2007 - Sanofi-Aventis has had to take Inyx USA to court after it failed to deliver on a contract manufacturing and supply agreement, a situation that Aventis feared could "seriously harm its...

Bayer banishes high dose MS drug

30-Oct-2007 - Bayer Schering Pharma this week announced that it has scrapped plans to introduce a double-dose version of its top-selling multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Betaferon (interferon beta-1b) by the end of...

Explosions at two pharma plants

30-Oct-2007 - Two pharmaceutical companies have faced explosions at their plants in the last week, local media reported.

Survey asks: what to do about counterfeit drugs?

30-Oct-2007 - Action should be taken to curb the counterfeit drug trade, but not via legal intervention, the results of a European survey say.

Big pharma reaches to Summit for zebrafish safety screening

30-Oct-2007 - Summit (formerly VASTox) has signed a $450,000 (€312,000) deal with one of the world's top five pharma firms to enable it to use Summit's zebrafish-platform in its drug safety programme.

Major Singapore investment for Novartis

29-Oct-2007 - Swiss pharma Novartis today announced the largest manufacturing investment in its history, revealing plans for a $700m (€486.5m) biotech facility to be built alongside its new solid dose plant in...

Pfizer to cut another 200 jobs

29-Oct-2007 - Pfizer is already cutting jobs in relation to its failed Exubera with the announcement that some 200 jobs are to go at the drug giant's Portage and Kalamazoo sites, according...

Contract manufacturing news in brief

29-Oct-2007 - Novavax, Cobra Biomanufacturing, Catalent Pharma Solutions, and Suven Life Sciences have all recently announced new contract manufacturing news.

Europe's latest drug recommendations

29-Oct-2007 - Europe's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) today released the report from its October meeting, with highlights including GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia (rosiglitazone), Atripla (efavirenz, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil), clobutinol cough...

Contact lenses for drug delivery

29-Oct-2007 - Investigations into the use of contact lenses as a drug delivery system have been recommended in a review article.

Singapore's output down

26-Oct-2007 - Figures released today reveal a slow-down in Singapore's pharmaceutical manufacturing output compared to this time last year.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: news in brief

26-Oct-2007 - In-PharmaTechnologist.com brings you a selection of other headlines from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

GSK axe begins to fall

26-Oct-2007 - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been swift in implementing its plant cuts, already announcing the first sites to be axed mere hours after revealing its restructuring plans.

Gardasil vs Cervarix - winner gets UK supply contract

26-Oct-2007 - The race is on between cervical cancer vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix as they begin to battle it out to win a more than £100m a year supply contract with the...

GSK to strip down through outsourcing and offshoring

26-Oct-2007 - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is planning to strip itself down closer to the bare bones of the business through further outsourcing and offshoring, with hopes of making itself into a lean, mean,...

Illumina's revenue soars as Affymetrix sues again

25-Oct-2007 - Illumina's third quarter revenues soared 82 per cent while Affymetrix looked to bolster its slice of the genetics market by filing more patent infringement claims against the young pretender.

Product news in brief - week 43

25-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of recent product news from Arrayjet, Aspectrics, BioTool, Cerno, IDBS, Olympus, Servocell, Tecan, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Viscotek and Warner Instruments.

MannKind all but shuts the door on Pfizer

25-Oct-2007 - MannKind Corporation needs an outside boost to get its inhaled insulin off the ground, but the likelihood of that partner being Pfizer is a 'very long shot', the president of...

Wockhardt makes latest US move

25-Oct-2007 - Indian generics specialist Wockhardt is continuing its drive to strengthen its foothold in the US market, snapping up US firm Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals.

Almac to take on US with $100m

25-Oct-2007 - Contract manufacturer Almac has set its sights on establishing a new US headquarters and has set aside $100m (€70m) for the purpose.

Pharmaceutical patent round-up

25-Oct-2007 - In-PharmaTechnologist.com brings you an update of pharmaceutical patent litigations.

Strong demand causes Waters Q3 to rise

25-Oct-2007 - Broad-based sales growth has helped push Waters third quarter revenues up 17 per cent to $353m (€248m) compared with the same period last year.

Sigma-Aldrich set to break $2bn yearly sales barrier

25-Oct-2007 - Sigma-Aldrich continued its strong year with both revenues and pre-tax profits showing strong double-digit growth in the third quarter predicting it will break the $2bn (€1.4bn) revenue mark this year.

GSK cut down by Avandia scare

25-Oct-2007 - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has emerged as the latest pharma firm to announce closures and job cuts along with its third quarter results, yet another casualty of generic competition and product safety...

BioSPM drives JPK into 'Technology Fast 50'

25-Oct-2007 - Scanning probe microscope (SPM) maker, JPK Instruments has been named as Germany's fastest growing nanotechnology company in accounting firm Deloitte's 'Technology Fast 50'.

Bentley to separate its two businesses

24-Oct-2007 - Bentley Pharmaceuticals has announced it is planning to split in two in a bid to bolster its two business divisions.

Pfizer's cost-cutting focus no 'Kindler surprise'

24-Oct-2007 - As it faces an increasingly uncertain financial future, Pfizer's reaffirmation that it plans to retain its focus on cutting costs, including outsourcing and offshoring, comes as no 'Kindler surprise', unlike...

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: people on the move

24-Oct-2007 - Novartis, Immunosyn, Alpharma and Cegedim Dendrite have all had people on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

WHO flu vaccine forecast an underestimate

24-Oct-2007 - The forecast that 4.5 billion doses of pandemic influenza vaccine could be produced by 2010 is an underestimate, according to GlaxoSmithKline.

Global pact to fight fakes

24-Oct-2007 - A major new trade agreement aiming to combat counterfeiting has been proposed by representatives of a number of key markets, including the US, EU and several other countries worldwide.

Inhalers failing asthmatics

23-Oct-2007 - Complicated inhaler devices are failing patients according to a recent report, with tricky mechanisms and techniques resulting in low drug delivery and poor disease management.

Industry news in brief - week 43

23-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic round up of industry news, with developments at Bruker, Codon Devices, Invitrogen, Luminex and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Sigma-Aldrich helps siRNA N-TER cells

23-Oct-2007 - Sigma-Aldrich has continued its push into siRNA delivery with the release of its N-TER nanoparticle system for hard-to-transfect cell lines.

Illumina halves the cost of miRNA expression profiling

23-Oct-2007 - Illumina has released a new microRNA (miRNA) assay for gene expression profiling at a cost that the company believes is less than half that of other commercially available systems.

Vitamin B12 the key to oral insulin?

23-Oct-2007 - Pfizer may have given up on its non-injectable insulin, but researchers in the US think they may have cracked a way to deliver the hormone orally, linking it up to...

Icon living up to its name

23-Oct-2007 - Icon is living up to its name, according to a recent contract research organisation (CRO) survey, which also recognised Quintiles and PPD in terms of quality performance.

DepoDur gets the nod for Australia

23-Oct-2007 - Pacira Pharmaceutical's modified-release formulation of morphine has been approved for marketing in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Outsourcing-Pharma.com special focus

Inyx Pharma gets new life; Ashton awaits fate

23-Oct-2007 - Inyx Pharma has been given a new lease on life after it was bought by another UK firm, bringing relief after it was dragged into administration when its US parent...

Inhaled insulin: make or break?

23-Oct-2007 - Eli Lilly is remaining optimistic about its yet-to-be-approved inhaled insulin despite the dramatic downfall of Pfizer's Exubera. But is Exubera's fall from grace an indication of things to come for...

Veeco's revenues slide as restructuring hits home

23-Oct-2007 - Scanning probe microscope maker Veeco has seen its third quarter revenues drop 13 per cent to $97.7m (€68.7m) and plans to make 100 staff redundant as part of a restructuring drive.

Weekly Comment

Pfizer partners in shock after surprise Exubera exit

22-Oct-2007 - We've all cringed at stories of people dumping their partners via text message but in the world of business, Pfizer seems to have taken things to a new level when...

Capacity doubled for fishy pharmaceutical

22-Oct-2007 - Danish firm Pronova BioPharma announced this morning that it is to double manufacturing capacity for its marine-derived active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), following increased demand for its omega-3 based drug.

Topical Voltaren Gel gets the nod

22-Oct-2007 - Novartis has received US approval for its osteoarthritis pain gel - the first for a topical prescription treatment for the indication.

King trims its court following Altace about-turn

22-Oct-2007 - King Pharmaceuticals last week announced that it would be cutting 20 per cent of its workforce after the US Court of Appeals reversed a previous court ruling and invalidated a...

EU drug regulations not good enough, says report

22-Oct-2007 - The European Medicines Agency is prejudiced in favour of big pharma and EU drug regulations need an overhaul, a new report says.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: news in brief

19-Oct-2007 - In-PharmaTechnologist.com brings you a selection of other headlines from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

Viracept back on the market in selected countries

19-Oct-2007 - Roche heard early this morning that the European Commission (EC) has decided to reinstate the marketing authorisation for the company's HIV drug, Viracept (nelfinavir), but countries outside the EU have...

Revival of honey as wound healer

19-Oct-2007 - The use of honey as a wound healer is making a comeback and according to a new report surgeons should be considering the kitchen pantry as an alternative to the...

Pfizer counts the cost of Exubera, Nektar suffers

19-Oct-2007 - With yesterday's perhaps unsurprising news that Pfizer has cut its losses and pulled out of the inhaled insulin market by dropping Exubera and giving up on second generation devices, the...

Pfizer abandons ship as Exubera sinks

18-Oct-2007 - Pfizer revealed today that it is abandoning its once-touted blockbuster Exubera, ending months of speculation as to whether the fledging world-first inhalable insulin would sink or swim in the fierce...

Product news in brief - week 42

18-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic update of recent product releases, with additions from Activotec, Applied Biosystems / MDS Sciex, FEI, Invitrogen, Mettler Toledo and Torrey Pines.

Big players boosting 3PL clout

18-Oct-2007 - Three big industry names have been busily bolstering their pharma logistics clout: Thermo Fisher Scientific, UPS and Kuehne+Nagel.

Online social networking a treasure trove for pharma

18-Oct-2007 - Pfizer's unprecedented move to network with physicians online has been described as a 'watershed moment' for the pharmaceutical industry by the chief executive of the social networking site Pfizer has...

Guarding against the misuse of synthetic genomics

18-Oct-2007 - A new report has outlined a series of recommendations for government policymakers to help mitigate the potential risks of the burgeoning synthetic genomics area.

Next gen cancer prodrug to challenge Pfizer's Camptosar

18-Oct-2007 - French firm Diatos has created a second generation irinotecan cancer therapy using its patented peptide-based drug delivery system, coming up with a drug that has greatly improved efficacy and safety...

Novartis suffers from generics, cuts jobs

18-Oct-2007 - Novartis has turned in its results for the first nine months of the year, with income gnawed at by generic competition and product suspensions, but still claiming record earnings helped...

Fingerprinting the structure of pharmaceuticals

18-Oct-2007 - A new solid-state proton NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) technique has been developed that can quickly determine polymorphism of active pharmaceuticals within tablet formulations.

Galenica acquires Aspreva

18-Oct-2007 - Swiss pharmaceutical and logistics company Galenica is to acquire Canadian pharmaceutical company Aspreva Pharmaceuticals for $915m (€645.2m).

Agilent and BioTrove push discovery efficiency

18-Oct-2007 - Agilent and BioTrove are collaborating to deliver ultra high-throughput sample preparation and mass spectrometry (MS) systems to speed the analysis of in vitro assays used in drug development.

Gerresheimer expects more growth

17-Oct-2007 - A worldwide growth in the sales of pharmaceutical bottles, and in the pharma sector in general, has had a positive impact on packaging company Gerresheimer's financial results.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: people on the move

17-Oct-2007 - ViRexx, Aesica, Velcura Therapeutics, Helix BioPharma and Avalon Pharmaceuticals have all had people on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

New lollipop is a sucker for pain management

17-Oct-2007 - Sucking a lollipop before having an endoscope placed down your throat is looking like the sweet treat for pain relief, according to new research.

INC Research bags lucrative development grant

17-Oct-2007 - INC has bagged local development funding that could be worth nearly $15m (€10.5m) for the firm over a number of years.

Contract manufacturing news in brief

17-Oct-2007 - Microbix Biosystems, PacificGMP and Insulet have all recently announced new contract manufacturing news.

Meldex moves in Germany, inks new deal

17-Oct-2007 - Growing demand has prompted tableting specialist Meldex International, formerly BioProgress, to launch a new sales and distribution hub in Germany, with the UK firm also announcing a new manufacturing contract...

Epicept screening for cancer 'executioner'

17-Oct-2007 - Epicept's ASAP screening platform examines levels of a cell 'executioner' in order to get its cancer drugs into the clinic faster.

Results: 2007 European outsourcing awards

16-Oct-2007 - The ten winners of the European outsourcing awards for 2007 were finally unveiled at the recently-held CPhI trade show in Milan.

Wyeth ups the ante with new proteomics method

16-Oct-2007 - Researchers from Wyeth Research's Biological Technologies division have described how the use of a titania-affinity enrichment step can aid in the discovery of post-translational protein modifications.

Industry news in brief - week 42

16-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic round up of industry news, with developments at Affymetrix Labs, AlphaSniffer, Corning, DNAPrint Genomics, Illumina and Rules-Based Medicine.

Pfizer gets chatty with docs online

16-Oct-2007 - Pfizer has gone where no pharmaceutical company has gone before - a social networking website.

US dragging its heels on biosimilars, says report

16-Oct-2007 - The US is woefully lagging behind the EU when it comes to approving biosimilars, a new report says.

Orexo buys Biolipox for pain pipeline

16-Oct-2007 - Drug formulation and delivery specialist Orexo has decided it has had enough of improving established drugs and wants to develop its own, so has bought speciality pharma firm Biolipox.

Roche results up on oncology portfolio

16-Oct-2007 - Roche announced its third quarter financials today, with its portfolio of oncology products such as Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Avastin (bevacizumab) performing strongly, and helping off-set the massive 60 per cent...

Moss protein factories scaled up

15-Oct-2007 - Normally, they are green, sort of spongy and found in dank nooks and crannies - but mosses have now been designed as therapeutic protein producing factories and are being implemented...

Crucell up on MedImmune deal

15-Oct-2007 - Following the shaky moment Crucell experienced last month after the failure of Merck's HIV drug, share prices had a healthy boost this morning on the news that MedImmune will be...

Indian firm takes over German biologics plant

15-Oct-2007 - An Indian firm has taken over the contract biologics manufacturing business of German corporation Siegfried.

Paving the way to next generation biologics

15-Oct-2007 - As biologic drugs become ever more prominent, Avecia Biologics is winning plaudits for its advanced protein expression system pAVEway, gaining recognition from international industry experts and investing to meet increased...

Improved infrastructure key to cheaper drugs

15-Oct-2007 - Improving the technology infrastructure of drug development could save the industry hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new US government study, with the ultimate winners being patients.

Boehringer UK plant 'couldn't compete'

12-Oct-2007 - Boehringer Ingelheim has been forced to announce the planned closure of a UK manufacturing site as a result of pricing pressures that mean the firm is unable to produce unit...

Best biopharma bosses

12-Oct-2007 - There have been a few changes in the top ten employers according to leading journal Science's annual survey of the best companies to work for in the biotech, biopharma, pharmaceutical...

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: news in brief

12-Oct-2007 - In-PharmaTechnologist.com brings you a selection of other headlines from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

Cough and cold products for under-twos recalled

12-Oct-2007 - Several big drug-makers are voluntarily recalling some of their cough and cold products for under-two-year-olds in the US as a precautionary measure against overdosing on the drugs.

Patch-based travel vaccine looks good

12-Oct-2007 - The first vaccine for travellers' diarrhoea is looking promising after the announcement of Phase II results.

It's a NanoDrop for Thermo Fisher Scientific

11-Oct-2007 - Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired micro-volume UV-Vis (ultra violet visible) instrument manufacturer NanoDrop Technologies for an undisclosed amount.

Product news in brief - week 41

11-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of product news, with developments at Beckman Coulter, Bruker, GE Healthcare, Invitrogen, PerkinElmer, Promega, Sigma-Aldrich, ThalesNano and Thar Instruments.

Ertl wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry

11-Oct-2007 - Professor Gerhard Ertl of the Max-Planck Society in Berlin, Germany, has won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on his 71st birthday for his 'groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry'.

UCB opens Irish facility

11-Oct-2007 - UCB is a wee bit excited after the opening of its newly expanded Irish facility, which will manufacture the company's overactive bladder drug, anticipated to be launched within the next...

Emergent BioSolutions moves forward with typhoid vaccine

11-Oct-2007 - Emergent BioSolutions is on the path to finding gold with its typhoid vaccine following positive results in a Phase II trial.

Lab-on-a-chip enables cell-free protein synthesis

11-Oct-2007 - Researchers have developed a new microfluidic device that enables high-throughput (HT), cell-free protein synthesis for genomic and proteomic functional analysis.

Cosmo lands partner for world-first drug

11-Oct-2007 - Italian firm Cosmo Pharmaceuticals today announced a licensing agreement with Ferring for its reformulated budesonide product, predicted to be the first oral corticosteroid for ulcerative colitis approved worldwide.

Avecia takes on new MS drug

11-Oct-2007 - Avecia Biologics has signed a development and manufacturing deal with US firm BaroFold, making use of the company's protein processing technology to produce its lead interferon-based multiple sclerosis (MS) candidate.

India's Indoco pursuing the West

11-Oct-2007 - Indian contract formulations specialist Indoco has been actively angling itself to compete more heartily in the western market.

AMRI embraces India

10-Oct-2007 - US-based contract manufacturer AMRI has been busily embracing India with the purchase and construction of infrastructure to cement itself in this popular location, delegates heard at this year's CPhI in...

China luring preclinical players

10-Oct-2007 - China is one of the best destinations to outsource preclinical work, delegates heard at this year's CPhI trade how in Milan.

Docetaxel head to head

10-Oct-2007 - Two manufacturers launched their docetaxel products at CPhI last week, each trying to stake their claim in the market in anticipation of patent expiries on Sanofi-Aventis' Taxotere (docetaxel) towards the...

Drug delivery sponging the nanoscale

10-Oct-2007 - Forget the washing up, the sponge could soon be used to deliver drugs - but on the nanoscale.

GE Healthcare introduces new bioprocessing products

10-Oct-2007 - UK-based GE Healthcare is introducing nine new product lines for biopharmaceutical production.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: people on the move

10-Oct-2007 - GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Nastech Pharmaceutical Company, Covalon Technologies and Invivi Technologies have all had people on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Weekly Comment

'We are not anti-Asia' says EU chemicals body

09-Oct-2007 - There have been more calls this month to tighten regulations on pharmaceutical ingredient suppliers in the wake of the recent safety concerns emanating from low-cost regions such as China and...

Industry news in brief - week 41

09-Oct-2007 - LabTechnolgist.com brings you a round up of recent industry news, including developments at Asuragen, bioMerieux, Caliper, Dolomite, IDBS, Perlegen, Phytronix, Porvair, Sigma-Aldrich and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Univar fills EU phosphate gap

09-Oct-2007 - Dutch chemicals and excipients distributor Univar has hooked up with US manufacturer Innophos to provide the EU pharmaceutical market with its entire portfolio of excipients, helping to fill the gap...

Bavarian Nordic meets milestones

09-Oct-2007 - Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic has received an advance payment of $50m (€35.4m) from the US Government for meeting milestones in one of its smallpox vaccine supply contracts.

FDA backs tablet imaging tech

09-Oct-2007 - UK-based TeraView has had its tablet imaging technology backed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following a study by the regulatory agency.

Dr Reddy's beefs up quality image

09-Oct-2007 - India's Dr Reddy's Laboratories has become the first company in the world to receive a new verification mark for two of its products, it was announced last week at the...

Proteomics shows 3D cell cultures are better than 2D

09-Oct-2007 - German researchers have shown 3D cell structures better resemble tumour phenotypes than traditional cultures, suggesting they will make better models for testing new anticancer agents.

German laboratory equipment market

09-Oct-2007 - Sales of laboratory products in Germany have recovered from a 'stagnant period' between 2001 and 2004 to reach a record €5.3bn in 2006.

Codon Devices expands gene scaffolding reach

09-Oct-2007 - Constructive Biology expert, Codon Devices, has opened a European subsidiary in the UK to support the rapid growth of the advanced gene synthesis and protein engineering markets.

US firm unveils new cell culture services

09-Oct-2007 - US drug discovery firm BioProcessors has unveiled a new range of cell culture services to assist in biopharmaceutical process development.

Weekly Comment

Pharmaceuticals is top R&D spender

08-Oct-2007 - As an increasingly desperate pharma industry strives to fill drug pipelines, the sector has, for the first time, topped a poll of which industries spend the most on research and...

Excipients unregulated and unacceptable

08-Oct-2007 - The European Fine Chemicals Group (EFCG) has called for stricter regulation of pharmaceutical excipients in a bid to prevent substandard and potentially dangerous products ending up in medicinal drugs.

Novartis osteoporosis drug gets EU nod

08-Oct-2007 - Swiss pharma Novartis has got the thumbs up from the EU for its once-yearly treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis.

FDA generics initiative waste of money?

08-Oct-2007 - The Generic Pharmaceutical Association has questioned a new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiative as possibly "throwing money down the drain".

Three more nailed in fake drugs scandal

08-Oct-2007 - Three more individuals have been sentenced following last month's exposure of the largest counterfeit drugs conspiracy ever to be encountered in the UK.

Novo to sell off its NNE engineering unit

08-Oct-2007 - Denmark's Novo Nordisk, could be on the verge of selling off its engineering division, if reports in the local business daily Borsen are to be believed.

Amgen indefinitely postpones Irish plant

05-Oct-2007 - Amgen has announced the 'indefinite postponement' on plans for its $1bn (€0.71bn) manufacturing facility in Cork, Ireland, following further navel gazing by the company.

GSK seeks WHO backing for cervical cancer vaccine

05-Oct-2007 - GlaxoSmithKline is seeking prequalification status from the World Health Organisation for its new cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix, in a bid to speed up its availability to developing countries.

Chilli hot on easing pain

05-Oct-2007 - An ingredient in chillies could form the basis of a new pain management formulation without creating numbness, researchers in the US have found.

Product news in brief - week 40

04-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic round up of product news, with releases from Harvard Apparatus, Invitrogen, Mettler Toledo, Millipore, Syrris, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Velocity 11 and WLD-TEC.

Bayer, Biocon discuss potential R&D and outsourcing deal

04-Oct-2007 - German pharma firm Bayer is currently discussing with Indian company Biocon about a potential deal that would include the co-development of new biologics with an outsourcing element, according to Biocon.

Horiba illuminates protein interactions

04-Oct-2007 - Horiba Jobin Yvon's protein interaction analyser, which can analyse up to 400 biomolecular interactions in 10 minutes, made its UK debut at the L.A.B. show on Tuesday.

Tamiflu waste could create drug resistant flu viruses

04-Oct-2007 - The excessive use of a popular influenza drug, and the associated build up of its waste in the environment, is heightening the risk of creating viruses in nature that are...

Granulation technology launched

04-Oct-2007 - Finland-based Atacama Labs has launched its proprietary technology system for developing solid oral dosage forms.

Polyclonal antibodies developed in transgenic chickens

04-Oct-2007 - The era of human polyclonal antibodies has dawned as efforts get underway to produce the next generation therapeutics in transgenic chickens.

Price of FMC cellulose skyrockets

04-Oct-2007 - FMC BioPolymer has been forced to raise the price of its pharmaceutical grade cellulose by up to eight per cent to meet market pressures.

Genzyme gets slapped on the wrist by FDA

04-Oct-2007 - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent a letter to Genzyme to warn it about manufacturing issues at its biomanufacturing facility in Lyon, France.

Sperm stopped in their tracks by vaginal gel contraceptive

03-Oct-2007 - Forget diamonds, a new vaginal gel contraceptive could be the 21st Century girl's new best friend with the ability to be applied up to 18 hours before a naughty rendezvous.

BMS takeover speculation mounts, again

03-Oct-2007 - Investors in Bristol-Myers Squibb were in a frisson of excitement earlier this week as speculation mounted - not for the first time - that the firm could soon become the...

SAFC bets on drug conjugates with new manufacturing suite

03-Oct-2007 - SAFC has announced its plans to build a new high potency conjugation suite at its Missouri manufacturing plant in order to target pharma clients developing novel anti-cancer drug conjugates.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing: people on the move

03-Oct-2007 - Mylan, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, VaxGen, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Bioject Medical Technologies, and Othera Pharmaceuticals have all had people on the move in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Sprinkles help the medicine go down

03-Oct-2007 - US regulators have found a new 'hundreds and thousands'-like drug treatment to be very palatable.

Weekly Comment

FDA told its safety monitoring of clinical trials not good enough

02-Oct-2007 - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been called into question again after the release of a damning report, this time suggesting the agency is inadequate in its safety...

Industry news in brief - week 40

02-Oct-2007 - LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of recent industry news, with developments at Affymetrix, Celera, deltaDOT, Eksigent, Farfield, Nanogen and Olympus UK.

ABI and Olink to push protein detection sensitivity

02-Oct-2007 - Applied Biosystems (ABI) has exclusively licensed Olink Bioscience's proximity ligation assay (PLA) technology that enables the correlation of gene and protein expression data.

One in the eye for systemic therapy

02-Oct-2007 - TheraKine and Capsulution NanoScience are collaborating to develop new drug delivery systems to aid in the treatment of serious eye diseases.

Drug theft costs industry up to $1bn a year

02-Oct-2007 - Pharmaceutical companies not only have to face the consequences of a burgeoning counterfeit drug black market but have to contend with the theft of their own manufactured drugs for illicit...

Mitsubishi/Tanabe merger makes Japan's fifth biggest drugmaker

02-Oct-2007 - The merger between Mitsubishi Chemical Holding's pharmaceutical unit and Tanabe Seiyaku has been completed and the new entity is looking to expand its presence outside Japan and create a more...

Discovery Labs finally sorts out manufacturing issues

02-Oct-2007 - Discovery Laboratories could see the end of its struggle to launch its Surfaxin (lucinactant) drug on the US market as it has finally resolved the manufacturing issues that have plagued...

Genzyme, Bioenvision merger on the rocks

02-Oct-2007 - A major shareholder in Bioenvision could seriously compromise the biotech company's proposed $345m (€242m) takeover by Genzyme as it is preparing to vote against the merger arguing the offer is...

DSM accelerates its new image

01-Oct-2007 - DSM has announced the conclusions for the company's complete overhaul as it accelerates the shift to a life sciences and materials sciences company.

Contract manufacturing news in brief

01-Oct-2007 - Baxter, LifeCyte, arGentis and Pfizer CentreSource have all recently announced new contract manufacturing deals.

Novartis diabetes drug gets thumbs up in EU

01-Oct-2007 - Novartis's potential Type II diabetes blockbuster has been given the green light in the EU after receiving approval.

Batches binned in new production tech link up

01-Oct-2007 - Novartis has hooked up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to fund a project aimed at 'revolutionising' pharmaceutical manufacturing and doing away with traditional batch-based production techniques.

Pfizer's Nigerian court trial over Trovan scandal to kick off

01-Oct-2007 - Pfizer will appear this week in a Nigerian court to face allegations that it caused the death of Nigerian children over a decade ago when it conducted a clinical trial...