Drug Discovery News and Research

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The drug discovery process begins with recognizing a disease or clinical condition in which there is a lack of adequate medical treatment. Once a potential drug has been identified, pre-clinical research can begin. This process includes several stages; the first of which involves identifying and validating the prospective drug’s target through assay development, high throughput screening, hit identification and finally, lead optimization. Once the pre-clinical process is complete, the newly synthesized drug candidate is selected for future clinical development.

Nimbus Discovery closes $24 million Series A financing

Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biopharmaceutical company using state-of-the-art computational technology to discover novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, today announced the close of a $24M Series A financing.

28 Jun 2011

Janssen, Jubilant partner for drug discovery in the field of neuroscience

Jubilant Discovery Services Inc., Bedminster, New Jersey, a Jubilant Life Sciences Company, announced today that it has entered into a drug discovery alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., Beerse, Belgium, that will aim to deliver preclinical candidates to Janssen. The alliance is set to span an initial period of 3 years and will focus on multiple targets in the area of neuroscience.

28 Jun 2011

Biolauncher, Isogenica and Cresset enter joint venture to develop drug discovery platform

Isogenica Ltd today announced a collaborative joint venture with Biolauncher Ltd and Cresset Biomolecular Discovery Ltd to develop an innovative end-to-end therapeutic discovery platform.

28 Jun 2011

Genentech, FORMA enter structurally innovative agreement for small molecule cancer program

FORMA Therapeutics announced today that it entered into an agreement granting Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, exclusive worldwide rights to acquire a pre-clinical small molecule program against a single undisclosed cancer target.

27 Jun 2011

McMaster researchers to use tiny worms for Parkinson's project

McMaster researchers from three disciplines are deploying thousands of tiny worms and a homegrown invention to test drugs in a collaborative bid to defeat Parkinson's Disease.

27 Jun 2011

Researchers develop new way to search for RNA drug targets

By accounting for the floppy, fickle nature of RNA, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine have developed a new way to search for drugs that target this important molecule. Their work appears in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

27 Jun 2011

New data from Zafgen's ZGN-433 Phase 1b study on obesity presented at ADA 2011

Zafgen, Inc., a pharmaceutical company pioneering novel obesity therapeutics to help the body regain and sustain a lean, healthy state by targeting imbalances in fat metabolism, today announced new data from a Phase 1b study of ZGN-433, a selective methionine aminopeptidase 2 inhibitor (MetAP2), which showed a significant improvement in cardiovascular risk markers in severely obese subjects.

27 Jun 2011

Monash researchers receive MMV Project of the Year award for new anti-malarial drug candidate

Monash University is collaborating on the development of a potential new drug to cure malaria throughout the world.

23 Jun 2011

Axxam receives ADDF grant to develop new therapeutics for Alzheimer's

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) announced today that it has awarded a grant to Axxam SpA to develop small molecules to treat Alzheimer's disease by targeting inflammation.

23 Jun 2011

AstraZeneca, Jubilant announce delivery outcomes and early success in Pain therapeutic area

Biosys Ltd., Bengaluru, based subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd., and AstraZeneca, today announced another successful delivery of an early stage milestone in the Pain therapeutic area.

23 Jun 2011

VENENUM opens new medicinal chemistry facility in Hamilton, NJ

VENENUM Biodesign, a drug discovery company that utilizes ultra-high throughput screening (UHTS) of its compound collection to identify potential therapeutic agents against its novel disease-based targets, or its partners' targets, announced today that it opened its new medicinal chemistry space at 8 Black Forest Road in Hamilton, NJ.

22 Jun 2011

Indian biotechnology market to reach over $11 billion by 2017

The Indian biotechnology market is set to reach over $11 billion by 2017, according to a new report available on companiesandmarkets.com. The market will be driven by foreign investment, growing R&D and infrastructure investment, an emerging contract research market, drug discovery and growth in manufacturing outsourcing to India.

21 Jun 2011

Neuroscientists to discuss future of mental health treatments at NCDEU meeting

More than 1,000 of the world's leading neuroscientists gathered this week at the 51st Annual NCDEU Meeting to discuss the future of mental health treatments.

21 Jun 2011

Endo Pharmaceuticals, Jubilant achieve milestone in cancer drug development program

Jubilant Biosys Ltd., Bengaluru based subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd., and Endo Pharmaceuticals, of Chadds Ford, Pa, U.S.A., announced today that they have achieved a late stage discovery milestone in their joint program focused on cancer.

20 Jun 2011

New insight into progressive supranuclear palsy

There are new genetic clues on risk factors and biological causes of a rare neurodegenerative disease called progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to a new study from an international genetics team led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

20 Jun 2011

RIKEN, JASRI produce first beam of X-ray laser light

RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have successfully produced a first beam of X-ray laser light with a wavelength of 1.2 Angstroms. This light was created using SACLA, a cutting-edge X-ray Free Electron Laser facility unveiled by RIKEN in February 2011 in Harima, Japan.

18 Jun 2011

Roche RTCA HT Instrument allows fully-automated impedance screens for GPCRs

Label-free technologies have entered the stage of cellular drug discovery and high-throughput screening (HTS). For the measurement of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) activation electrical impedance represents an excellent universal readout technology, since different signaling pathways can be measured in one assay format using recombinant as well as primary cells.

17 Jun 2011

ADDF, AFTD invite scientists to apply for Frontotemporal Dementia-specific biomarker grants

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration invite scientists from academia and the biotechnology industry worldwide to apply for research grants to develop Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)-specific biomarkers that reflect pathological and clinical differences so that appropriate patients can be selected for clinical trials and responses to investigational treatments can be monitored.

16 Jun 2011

Brain research funds crisis: Report

According to the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology there is a dramatic drop in private and public funding for research in brain diseases that has led to a “withdrawal of hope” for millions of sufferers and could delay the search for treatments and cures by 30 years.

16 Jun 2011

UC Davis, Jackson Laboratory and NCI partner for human clinical trials on cancer

About nine out of 10 new cancer drugs successfully clear preclinical development hurdles, but then they fail in human clinical testing. A new partnership facilitated by SAIC-Frederick Inc. aims to help change that outcome.

13 Jun 2011