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.

Sosei Group assigns its SD281 drug discovery programme to Biocopea

Sosei Group Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, today announces the assignment of the drug discovery programme, SD281 and its analogues, to Biocopea Limited, a UK biotechnology company and subsidiary of PepTcell Limited. These compounds, based on a metabolite of a well-known drug, were shown by Sosei to have pronounced anti-inflammatory properties.

14 Oct 2009

ADDF grant to support the evaluation of PPAR-sparing insulin sensitizers

Metabolic Solutions Development Company (MSDC) announced today that it has received a $100,000 grant from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to support the evaluation of PPAR-sparing insulin sensitizers as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

14 Oct 2009

NIH awards Gladstone Institute consortium $3.7M for Huntington's disease research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a "Grand Opportunity" grant of $3.7 million to a consortium formed with the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) and the Taube-Koret Center for Huntington's Disease Research to use stem cell technology to better understand Huntington's disease (HD) and to develop potential therapies.

14 Oct 2009

Sanofi-aventis collaborates with Merrimack Pharmaceuticals for rights to human monoclonal antibody MM-121

Dyax Corp. announced today new developments involving drug candidates identified using the Company’s proprietary phage display technology as a result of two deals recently announced by sanofi-aventis.

13 Oct 2009

University of Florida to build a new research facility in Orlando

The University of Florida (UF) has reached a milestone in its efforts to build a research facility in Orlando at the emerging Lake Nona Medical City. A ceremony marking the official signing of the agreements was held immediately preceding the formal dedication of Burnham Institute for Medical Research’s (Burnham) Lake Nona campus.

13 Oct 2009

Heptares Therapeutics to apply its StaR technology to generate novel drug leads against GPCR target

Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, the drug discovery company focused on G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets, announced today that it has entered into an option agreement with the Novartis Option Fund under which Heptares will apply its proprietary StaR(TM) technology to generate novel drug leads against a nominated, unspecified GPCR target of interest to Novartis.

12 Oct 2009

Locus Pharmaceuticals enters into discovery research collaboration with Novartis

Locus Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has entered into a discovery research collaboration with Novartis. Locus will collaborate with Novartis to discover novel chemotypes on targets of interest to Novartis’ select therapeutic areas.

12 Oct 2009

Czura Thornton to buy MDS' Central Labs operation

MDS Inc., a leading provider of products and services to the global life sciences markets, today announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its Central Labs operation, which conducts analysis of samples from late-stage clinical trials to Czura Thornton, a private investment group based in Jersey, Channel Islands.

From Danaher 9 Oct 2009

Czura Thornton to acquire MDS's Central Labs operation

From Danaher 9 Oct 2009

TargetEx to be the coordinator for CancerGrid consortium

TargetEx llc, Budapest announced today that the Research Directorate General of the Commission of the European Communities approved the transfer of the coordinator responsibilities of the European Cancer Research Consortium (CancerGrid) to TargetEx.

9 Oct 2009

Burnham Institute officially dedicates its new research facility at Lake Nona

Today, Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) officially dedicated its new 175,000-square-foot scientific facility and marked the opening of Orlando’s Medical City as a life science center. Burnham at Lake Nona is the research anchor for the new development in southeast Orange County and the east coast campus of the La Jolla, Calif.-based institute.

9 Oct 2009

BioFocus to use DiscoveRx's GPCR screening assay and associated cell lines

DiscoveRx Corp. and BioFocus® announced today that they have signed a co-marketing agreement that allows BioFocus to perform screening on behalf of BioFocus’ customers using DiscoveRx PathHunter™ ß-Arrestin GPCR screening assay, HitHunter™ cAMP assays and associated cell lines.

9 Oct 2009

Roche scientist honored with 2009 Meienhofer Award for excellence in peptide chemistry

Waleed Danho, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Leader at Roche was honored last week as the 2009 recipient of the Meienhofer Award for excellence in peptide chemistry at the international peptide symposium, RCCPS (http://www.rochecolorado.com/PeptideSymp09/).

8 Oct 2009

Odyssey Thera to receive milestone payments from Pfizer

Odyssey Thera, Inc. announced that it will receive milestone payments from one of its investors, Pfizer Inc. following Pfizer's decision to progress drug candidates studied by Odyssey Thera as part of Odyssey's multi-year alliance with Pfizer announced in August, 2006.

7 Oct 2009

Nutra Pharma to launch prescription analgesic for severe chronic pain treatment

Nutra Pharma Corp. (OTCBB: NPHC), a biotechnology company that is developing treatments for Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), HIV and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), has announced today its intent to launch a prescription analgesic, Nyloxin Rx, for the treatment of severe (Stage 3) chronic pain.

7 Oct 2009

Galapagos receives EUR 500,000 cash payment from GSK

Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that it has reached the first milestone in its antibacterials and antivirals alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). For achieving this milestone, Galapagos receives a EUR 500,000 cash payment from GSK.

7 Oct 2009

Vantia Therapeutics announces the start of Phase II proof-of-concept trials of its VA111913 drug

Vantia Therapeutics today announces that its novel oral small molecule drug for the treatment of dysmenorrhoea (painful menstruation) has entered Phase II proof-of-concept trials. In addition, Vantia announces results of the successful Phase I trial of VA111913, which showed the product candidate to be safe and well tolerated.

6 Oct 2009

Update from ACADIA Pharmaceuticals regarding its Phase III program with pimavanserin

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ACAD), a biopharmaceutical company utilizing innovative technology to fuel drug discovery and clinical development of novel treatments for central nervous system disorders, today provided an update on its Phase III program with pimavanserin for Parkinson’s disease psychosis (PDP), which is being pursued in collaboration with Biovail Laboratories International SRL (“Biovail”), a subsidiary of Biovail Corporation.

6 Oct 2009

Ingenuity Systems, Millennium Science announce a multi-year deal for Ingenuity Pathway Analysis with QFAB

Ingenuity Systems, the leading provider of information solutions for life science researchers, and Millennium Science, Ingenuity Systems' exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand, today announced a multi-year deal for Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) with the Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB).

6 Oct 2009

MD Biosciences' new location increases capacity for in vitro services and product development

MD Biosciences (MDB), a contract research organization offering pre-clinical services and products in support of drug discovery for inflammatory and neurological diseases, relocated its U.S. office from 1000 Westgate Dr, St Paul, MN to 2575 University Ave W, St Paul, MN on October 3, 2009.

6 Oct 2009

Drug Discovery News and Research

Further Reading

Sosei Group assigns its SD281 drug discovery programme to Biocopea

ADDF grant to support the evaluation of PPAR-sparing insulin sensitizers

NIH awards Gladstone Institute consortium $3.7M for Huntington's disease research

Sanofi-aventis collaborates with Merrimack Pharmaceuticals for rights to human monoclonal antibody MM-121

University of Florida to build a new research facility in Orlando

Heptares Therapeutics to apply its StaR technology to generate novel drug leads against GPCR target

Locus Pharmaceuticals enters into discovery research collaboration with Novartis

Czura Thornton to buy MDS' Central Labs operation

Czura Thornton to acquire MDS's Central Labs operation

TargetEx to be the coordinator for CancerGrid consortium

Burnham Institute officially dedicates its new research facility at Lake Nona

BioFocus to use DiscoveRx's GPCR screening assay and associated cell lines

Roche scientist honored with 2009 Meienhofer Award for excellence in peptide chemistry

Odyssey Thera to receive milestone payments from Pfizer

Nutra Pharma to launch prescription analgesic for severe chronic pain treatment

Galapagos receives EUR 500,000 cash payment from GSK

Vantia Therapeutics announces the start of Phase II proof-of-concept trials of its VA111913 drug

Update from ACADIA Pharmaceuticals regarding its Phase III program with pimavanserin

Ingenuity Systems, Millennium Science announce a multi-year deal for Ingenuity Pathway Analysis with QFAB

MD Biosciences' new location increases capacity for in vitro services and product development

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