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.

Caliper Life Sciences introduces Quantum FX stand-alone microCT system for preclinical imaging

Caliper Life Sciences, Inc., a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery, life sciences research and molecular diagnostics, today announced the Quantum FX, a stand-alone microCT system for preclinical imaging. Introduced at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2010, the Quantum FX is a low dose, microCT system that provides researchers with a 3-dimensional anatomical view of disease activity, tumor development and therapeutic response over multiple time points during the course of a study.

19 Apr 2010

Enhancing drug residence time may help develop better diagnostic, therapeutic agents

Research conducted at the Stony Brook University Institute for Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery that enhances the time a drug remains bound to its target, or residence time, may prove to be an important step in developing better diagnostic and therapeutic agents based partly on longer drug residence time.

17 Apr 2010

Findings strengthen promise of SCYNEXIS' SCY-635 for HCV treatment

Drug discovery company SCYNEXIS, Inc. today presented data supporting an impressive resistance profile for SCY-635—a novel, oral cyclophilin inhibitor being studied for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. In the study, SCYNEXIS demonstrated that the hepatitis C virus required multiple mutations across two separate proteins in order to establish resistance to SCY-635. The majority of HCV drugs on the market and in development require only one targeted viral mutation to establish resistance.

16 Apr 2010

Sorrento Therapeutics completes construction of fully human mAbs library

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it has completed the construction of an extensive library of full-length, fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Initial analysis indicates a potential diversity of more than one trillion unique mAbs. The company believes this makes its library the largest full-length, fully human antibody library available for drug discovery and development partnerships.

15 Apr 2010

New computer simulation technique could speed up drug discovery process

Scientists here are taking the trial and error out of drug design by using powerful computers to identify molecular structures that have the highest potential to serve as the basis for new medications.

15 Apr 2010

New experimental compound offers hope for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Researchers from the Sackler Center at Weill Cornell Medical College have designed a new class of drugs that targets BCL6, a master regulatory protein responsible for causing the most common type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

15 Apr 2010

ErbB3 program development candidate selection triggers $5M milestone payment to AVEO Pharmaceuticals

AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing cancer therapeutics, today announced it has received a $5 million milestone payment from Biogen Idec International GmbH, a subsidiary of Biogen Idec, Inc., for the selection of the first humanized antibody development candidate from its ErbB3 program.

15 Apr 2010

AMRI announces multi-year research agreement with Navigen Pharmaceuticals

AMRI announced today that it has initiated a research collaboration with Navigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focused on the development of new drug therapies.

15 Apr 2010

Trevena commences Phase I trial of TRV120027 biased ligand for acute decompensated heart failure

Trevena Inc., a leader in the discovery of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands, today announced the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial of TRV120027, a titratable i.v. agent designed for the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure. TRV120027 is a biased ligand that targets the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) and induces a unique mode of signaling.

15 Apr 2010

AACR Annual Meeting 2010: Æterna Zentaris to present data on Erk/PI3K inhibitor compounds

Æterna Zentaris Inc. a late-stage drug development company specialized in oncology and endocrinology, today announced that it will make an oral presentation, as well as a poster presentation on Erk/PI3K inhibitor compounds, Tuesday, April 20, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, to be held April 17-21, 2010 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

13 Apr 2010

TD2, Horizon Discovery announce strategic alliance to advance personalized medicine

A strategic alliance announced today between TGen Drug Development (TD2) and Horizon Discovery Limited will significant advance personalized medicine.

13 Apr 2010

Carestream Molecular Imaging, OncoVision sign exclusive agreement for Albira PET/SPECT/CT imaging system

Carestream Molecular Imaging, a division of Carestream Health, Inc., has signed an exclusive, multi-year worldwide agreement with OncoVision (Valencia, Spain), to sell, market and service the Albira PET/SPECT/CT imaging system for small animal research. With the addition of this innovative, multimodal imaging system, Carestream Molecular Imaging will offer the broadest portfolio of pre-clinical in vivo imaging modalities in the market.

12 Apr 2010

More public-private partnerships crucial for success of Italian pharmaceutical industry

The newly retired Chief Executive Officer of Roche Pharmaceuticals Bill Burns today led calls for more public-private partnerships in the pharmaceutical industry at the launch of the Italian Institute of Technology's Drug Discovery and Development Unit (D3).

9 Apr 2010

A*STAR announces fifth major collaboration with Italian research centres and universities

Two research units under Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC) and Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), are collaborating with Italy's Siena Biotech S.p.A. to develop new drugs and targeted antibodies respectively, which will potentially help millions of cancer and bone loss patients across the world. This is the fifth major collaboration A*STAR has with research centres and universities in Italy .

9 Apr 2010

World's largest autism science and advocacy organization awards 16 new research grants

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization, today announced the awarding of 16 new research grants totaling $5,223,743 over the next three years.

9 Apr 2010

ADDF, AFTD announce recipients of Frontotemporal Dementia Drug Discovery Program award

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and the Association for Frontotemporal Dementias (AFTD) announced today the recipients of their third annual research award, Frontotemporal Dementia Drug Discovery Program. The goal of the program is to accelerate the development of novel therapies for frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The program will provide a total of $1,200,000 in research grants over four years.

8 Apr 2010

Sigma-Aldrich, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma enter distribution agreement for RESOMER polymers

Sigma-Aldrich® announced today it has entered into a distribution agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Germany, to offer its portfolio of RESOMER biodegradable polylactide (PLA) and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) polymers to the research community.

8 Apr 2010

Sigma-Aldrich, HSI sign distribution agreement for patented stable isotope labeled synthetic reagents

Sigma-Aldrich® announced today that it has signed an agreement with New Mexico Highlands University through its licensee, Highlands Stable Isotope Corp., to exclusively distribute a novel set of patented stable isotope labeled synthetic reagents.

7 Apr 2010

Jantibody Therapeutics, Pfenex collaborate in production of HSP-avidin fusion proteins

Boston BioCom LLC today announced the successful completion of a collaborative research agreement between its Jantibody Therapeutics LLC subsidiary and Pfenex Inc., resulting in the rapid production of a HSP-avidin fusion protein for the Jantibodies self-assembling vaccines platform.

7 Apr 2010

Astrogenetix narrows in on MRSA virulence onboard space shuttle Discovery

Astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-131) activated an experiment this morning as part of the ninth scientific payload for Astrogenetix, an Austin, Texas-based commercial biotech company. Astrogenetix is conducting the International Space Station National Laboratory Pathfinder Vaccine (NLP-V) missions to take advantage of the unique conditions of microgravity to uncover changes in bacteria that can be targeted to create new vaccines and therapeutics.

6 Apr 2010

Drug Discovery News and Research

Further Reading

Caliper Life Sciences introduces Quantum FX stand-alone microCT system for preclinical imaging

Enhancing drug residence time may help develop better diagnostic, therapeutic agents

Findings strengthen promise of SCYNEXIS' SCY-635 for HCV treatment

Sorrento Therapeutics completes construction of fully human mAbs library

New computer simulation technique could speed up drug discovery process

New experimental compound offers hope for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

ErbB3 program development candidate selection triggers $5M milestone payment to AVEO Pharmaceuticals

AMRI announces multi-year research agreement with Navigen Pharmaceuticals

Trevena commences Phase I trial of TRV120027 biased ligand for acute decompensated heart failure

AACR Annual Meeting 2010: Æterna Zentaris to present data on Erk/PI3K inhibitor compounds

TD2, Horizon Discovery announce strategic alliance to advance personalized medicine

Carestream Molecular Imaging, OncoVision sign exclusive agreement for Albira PET/SPECT/CT imaging system

More public-private partnerships crucial for success of Italian pharmaceutical industry

A*STAR announces fifth major collaboration with Italian research centres and universities

World's largest autism science and advocacy organization awards 16 new research grants

ADDF, AFTD announce recipients of Frontotemporal Dementia Drug Discovery Program award

Sigma-Aldrich, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma enter distribution agreement for RESOMER polymers

Sigma-Aldrich, HSI sign distribution agreement for patented stable isotope labeled synthetic reagents

Jantibody Therapeutics, Pfenex collaborate in production of HSP-avidin fusion proteins

Astrogenetix narrows in on MRSA virulence onboard space shuttle Discovery

Drug Discovery - Second Edition eBook

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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