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.

Interaction networks: the new path to drug discovery

Although the pharmaceutical industry has dedicated enormous research efforts over the last 50 years to identify new targets and develop new active ingredients, these efforts have met with limited success.

17 Apr 2008

Potential treatment for multiple sclerosis goes to trial

A potential treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS), developed by University of Greenwich in association with Kings College, London, has begun clinical trials.

15 Apr 2008

Discovery of small molecule that disrupts Ewing's sarcoma oncogene

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found a small molecule they say can block the action of the oncogene that causes Ewing's sarcoma, a rare cancer found in children and young adults.

13 Apr 2008

Doxycycline effective against filariasis in Southeast Asia

Doxycycline alone is more effective against the most common form of filariasis in Southeast Asia than the standard treatment, with significantly fewer side effects, according to a new study published in the May 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and currently available online.

10 Apr 2008

Synthetic molecules may be less expensive alternative to therapeutic antibodies

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a simple and inexpensive method to screen small synthetic molecules and pull out a handful that might treat cancer and other diseases less expensively than current methods.

7 Apr 2008

FDA sends approvable letter for Ceftobiprole as treatment of complicated skin infections

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. (J&JPRD), has announced that it received an approvable letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its New Drug Application (NDA) for ceftobiprole for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections, including diabetic foot infections.

19 Mar 2008

On the trail of rogue genetically modified pathogens

Bacteria can be used to engineer genetic modifications, thereby providing scientists with a tool to combat many challenges in areas from food production to drug discovery.

18 Mar 2008

Reasonable Rx: Solving the drug price crisis

The mounting U.S. drug price crisis can be contained and eventually reversed by separating drug discovery from drug marketing and by establishing a non-profit company to oversee funding for new medicines, according to two MIT experts on the pharmaceutical industry.

18 Mar 2008

Thermo Fisher Scientific creates breakthrough gene-silencing tool

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has developed a breakthrough gene-silencing tool that greatly simplifies RNA- interference (RNAi) technology and eliminates barriers associated with previous cellular delivery methods.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 12 Mar 2008

Tackling antimicrobial resistance

Drug resistance is making many diseases increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible to treat, according to Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

11 Mar 2008

The brain's melanocortin system points to new treatments for obesity and anorexia

The discovery of the brain's so-called melanocortin system and its central role in controlling appetite has paved the way for entirely new possibilities for treating obesity and anorexia.

10 Mar 2008

Cannabis-derived medicines may help Alzheimer's

Cannabis-derived medicines may one day be used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease which affects 417,000 people in the UK.

10 Mar 2008

Scientists devise approach that stops HIV at earliest stage of infection

Their study, which appears this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may re-energize attempts to create a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV, say the authors.

28 Feb 2008

New insight into the fundamentals of Parkinson's disease

A single change in a protein may play a role in whether someone develops Parkinson's disease, say University of Florida Genetics Institute researchers writing in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Feb 2008

Advanced Cell Technology demonstrates highly efficient process for the generation of high-purity hepatocytes

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. has reported for the first time a robust and highly efficient process for the generation of high-purity hepatocytes (liver cells).

21 Feb 2008

Medical Research Council and GSK to identify new therapeutic targets from genetic association studies

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have announced the creation of a jointly funded programme seeking to identify and validate genes associated with common human diseases. A key aim of the programme will be to translate these observations into new drug targets and biomarkers of disease.

28 Jan 2008

Synthesis of natural molecule could lead to better anti-cancer drugs

In early 2007, Northwestern University chemist Karl Scheidt's interest was piqued when marine chemist Amy Wright reported in the Journal of Natural Products that a new natural compound derived from an uncommon deep-sea sponge was extremely effective at inhibiting cancer cell growth.

24 Jan 2008

New method enables design, production of extremely novel drugs

A new chemical synthesis method based on a catalyst worth many times the price of gold and providing a far more efficient and economical method than traditional ones for designing and manufacturing extremely novel pharmaceutical compounds is described by its University at Buffalo developers in a review article in the current issue of Nature.

24 Jan 2008

Unique fungal collection could hold key to future antibiotics

Scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London have joined forces with CABI to establish a facility to screen for potential new antibiotics.

23 Jan 2008

Cancer Research UK invests 10 million pounds in drug discovery

Project leaders at Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Strathclyde and The School of Pharmacy in London will each receive 500k pounds per year for five years to develop anti-cancer drugs.

17 Jan 2008