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.

Axiogenesis signs non-exclusive license agreement with iPS Academia

Axiogenesis AG and iPS Academia Japan Inc. (Kyoto, Japan) announced that they have executed a non-exclusive agreement with iPS Academia (Kyoto, Japan) through which Axiogenesis obtains worldwide access to the extensive portfolio of induced pluripotent stem cell technology for iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and other cell types, pioneered by Professor Shinya Yamanaka, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at the University of Kyoto, Japan.

3 Aug 2010

GSK exercises option to obtain exclusive licence to develop, commercialise GSK '052

Anacor Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline PLC today announced that GSK has exercised its option to obtain an exclusive licence to develop and commercialise GSK2251052 (GSK '052), formerly known as AN3365. GSK '052 is a novel, systemic antibiotic derived from Anacor's boron chemistry platform.

30 Jul 2010

ACADIA initiates new pimavanserin Phase III trial for Parkinson's disease psychosis

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company utilizing innovative technology to fuel drug discovery and clinical development of novel treatments for central nervous system disorders, today announced that it has initiated a new Phase III trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability and safety of pimavanserin as a treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease psychosis (PDP).

30 Jul 2010

Isis Pharmaceuticals receives $5M payment from GSK for dug development

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has earned a $5 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline related to the designation as a development candidate of a drug to treat an undisclosed rare and serious disease. Isis will develop the drug to Phase 2 proof-of-concept, at which time GSK has the option to license it.

29 Jul 2010

AVEO second-quarter total revenues increase to $15.6 million

AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing cancer therapeutics, today provided an update on recent research and development (R&D) and business accomplishments, and announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2010.

29 Jul 2010

Aptuit announces strategic partnership Siena Biotech

Aptuit, Inc., and Siena Biotech S.p.A., today announced a strategic partnership in which Siena Biotech will take a minority stake in Aptuit's Italian operations in Verona, Italy, and Aptuit will become a provider of choice for Siena Biotech's development pipeline. Under the agreement Aptuit and Siena Biotech will work collaboratively on the development of Siena Biotech's pipeline of compounds, focused in three key therapeutic areas, including Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and oncology.

29 Jul 2010

Scientists identify new catalytic process to create pharmaceuticals with less chemical waste

Much like two children in the back seat of a car, it can be challenging to get two catalysts to cooperate for the greater good. Now Northwestern University chemists have gotten two catalysts to work together on the same task -- something easily done by nature but a difficult thing to do in the laboratory.The findings, published by the journal Nature Chemistry, will allow medicinal chemists to invent new reactions and produce valuable bioactive compounds faster with less impact on the environment.

29 Jul 2010

Aphios awarded US patent for compositions, methods for treating diseases involving 5-α reductase enzyme

Aphios® Corporation today announced that it was awarded United States Patent No. 7,744,935 B2 for "Compositions and Methods for Inhibiting 5-α Reductase," granted June 29, 2010. This invention is related to compositions and methods for treating diseases involving the 5-alpha (α) reductase enzyme.

28 Jul 2010

Astellas extends non-exclusive license agreement with Regeneron for VelocImmune technology

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc. announced that Astellas has extended through 2023 the non-exclusive license agreement that allows Astellas to utilize Regeneron's VelocImmune® technology in its internal research programs to discover fully human monoclonal antibody product candidates.

28 Jul 2010

Integral Molecular receives patent for Lipoparticle membrane protein technology

Integral Molecular, Inc. today announced the issuance of a key patent covering its technology for deriving high concentrations of membrane proteins. The patent, issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covers the core composition of Integral Molecular's Lipoparticle technology, a novel cell-free format for deriving highly-concentrated membrane proteins for antibody development, drug discovery, and biomedical research.

28 Jul 2010

Progenra receives Official Notice of Allowance for screening platform

Progenra, Inc., announced today their receipt of an Official Notice of Allowance, dated June 15, 2010, of U.S. Patent Application No. 11/156,707, "Diagnostic and Screening Methods and Kits Associated with Proteolytic Activity." IP protection of this technology was also recently granted by the European Union. This technology will enable faster drug discovery by improving the ability to identify more selective drugs that modulate the handling of proteins associated with various disease states.

27 Jul 2010

QPS acquires Xendo Drug Development

QPS Holdings, LLC, a leading full-service GLP/GCP-compliant contract research organization providing testing services to support preclinical and clinical research and development, announced the completion of its acquisition of Xendo Drug Development BV (XDD), headquartered in Groningen, The Netherlands. XDD, a European contract research organization (CRO), will be known as QPS Netherlands BV and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of QPS Holdings, LLC.

26 Jul 2010

Maven Semantic announces updates to Bioinformatics medical professionals database

Maven Semantic announces updates to their Bioinformatics database.

23 Jul 2010

Achillion nominates ACH-2928 NS5A clinical candidate for treatment of HCV

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the discovery and development of treatments for the most challenging infectious diseases, today announced the nomination of a lead clinical candidate in its fourth proprietary program against hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The candidate, ACH-2928, is an NS5A inhibitor that in preclinical studies has demonstrated excellent potency against HCV RNA replication, as well as good pharmacokinetic and safety profiles.

22 Jul 2010

BioTime announces 21 new stem cell products for sale

BioTime, Inc. announced today that on August 1, 2010 the Company will be offering for sale 21 new stem cell products for research use only. These products will include the novel stem cell lines: E120 expressing the gene LGR5 useful in colon cancer drug discovery, EN16, T43, RAD20.5, RA-SKEL8, SM22, and Z1, full properties of which will be disclosed on product launch, along with differentiation kits and media for the culture of each line.

22 Jul 2010

Affymetrix launches QuantiGene ViewRNA Assay formats

Affymetrix, Inc. today announced the launch of QuantiGene® ViewRNA Assay formats, which enable a new era of "in situ multiplex gene expression analysis" by allowing drug screening of native cells and advancing the pace of biomarker disease research and stem cell studies. These in situ assays enable researchers to visualize gene expression in individual cells at an unprecedented level of sensitivity and speed.

22 Jul 2010

KAI Pharmaceuticals completes enrollment in Phase 1 study of KAI-4169 for SHPT

KAI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and development company, today announced the Company has completed enrollment in a Phase 1 study of KAI-4169, a novel pharmaceutical agent for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism, which is a frequent complication of end stage renal disease.

20 Jul 2010

Johnson & Johnson second-quarter sales increase 0.6% to $15.3 billion

Johnson & Johnson today announced sales of $15.3 billion for the second quarter of 2010, an increase of 0.6% as compared to the second quarter of 2009. Operational results increased 0.1% and the positive impact of currency was 0.5%. Domestic sales declined 2.8%, while international sales increased 4.1%, reflecting operational growth of 3.0% and a positive currency impact of 1.1%.

20 Jul 2010

Rottapharm Madaus, Selvita sign drug discovery services contract

Rottapharm Madaus and Selvita announced today signature of a services contract for delivery of drug discovery services. The aim of this project is to deliver to Rottapharm Madaus a set of designed and synthesized compounds, including their optimized synthesis route, which will have a therapeutic potential in an indicated area.

20 Jul 2010

Epizyme publishes two new review papers on epigenetics

Epizyme, Inc., a company leading the discovery and development of first-in-class, targeted cancer therapeutics against epigenetic targets, announced today the publication of two new review papers in the area of epigenetics. Together, the articles provide an overview of the major epigenetic enzyme classes, as well as chemical biology approaches for discovering small molecule inhibitors of these epigenetic enzymes, and demonstrate Epizyme's scientific leadership in the area of epigenetics.

17 Jul 2010