Drug Discovery News and Research

RSS

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.

Gamma Medica-Ideas closes $24 million financing to support digital technologies

Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc. ("GMI"), a leading developer of digital molecular imaging systems, announced today that it had closed a $24 million financing, the company's first institutional round, in order to support continued growth of the company's proprietary digital SPECT, PET and CT technologies in current and new markets.

23 Sep 2009

Updates from Pacific Biosciences to its commercial strategy and progress

Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, today provided a number of updates to its commercial strategy and progress.

22 Sep 2009

Cancer Research UK invests £16 million in new Drug Discovery Programes at Manchester and Glasgow

CANCER RESEARCH UK is set to extend its drug discovery effort by investing up to £16 million in two new Drug Discovery Programmes at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow.

22 Sep 2009

Drug registration process for Nutra Pharma's pain reliever begins

Nutra Pharma Corp., a biotechnology company that is developing treatments for Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), HIV and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), has announced today that it plans to begin the drug registration process in Canada and Europe for its over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever. The company is currently marketing a similar drug in the United States under the brand name Cobroxin for the treatment of moderate to severe (Stage 2) chronic pain.

22 Sep 2009

Neurodegenerative disorders are the second-leading cause of early-onset dementia, says report

Neurodegenerative disorders called frontotemporal dementias (FTD) are the second-leading cause of early-onset dementia in persons under age 65 and can emerge sometimes as early as age 20.

21 Sep 2009

Cyntellect releases new cell cytometry system

Cyntellect, Inc., a privately-held life sciences company commercializing products to advance life science and stem cell research, biopharmaceutical production, and drug discovery, today unveiled its Celigo™ adherent cell cytometry system, the Company’s new platform for non-invasive in situ live cell imaging.

21 Sep 2009

Wyeth and Ambrx collaborate to produce the next generation of biologic drugs

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) and Ambrx Inc. today announced the formation of a worldwide alliance to discover, develop, and commercialize protein drug candidates for three undisclosed targets in multiple therapeutic areas. The alliance will capitalize on Ambrx's recent breakthroughs in applying its protein medicinal chemistry platform to proteins produced in mammalian cells such as antibodies and antibody-toxin conjugates.

19 Sep 2009

Second-quarter 2009 unaudited results announced by Deltagen

Deltagen, Inc. (Pink Sheets: DGEN), a leading provider of drug discovery tools to the biopharmaceutical industry, today reported unaudited consolidated financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2009.

19 Sep 2009

Rexahn to sign licensing and stock purchase agreements with Teva Pharmaceutical

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: RNN), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company commercializing potential best in class oncology and central nervous system (CNS) therapeutics, today announced that it has reached an agreement to close on its previously announced licensing and stock purchase agreements with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited.

18 Sep 2009

New tool developed to provide precise and cost-effective data collection for drug discovery efforts

Cancer and cell biology experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have developed a new mass spectrometry-based tool they say provides more precise, cost-effective data collection for drug discovery efforts.

18 Sep 2009

Enzo expands its capability to perform simultaneous live-cell imaging of nuclear components

Enzo Life Sciences, a division of Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ), has added a novel new system to its CELLestial™ line of live cell analysis products, providing expanded capability to simultaneously image both the nucleus and the nucleolus in living cells, the Company announced today. Called the Total Nuclear-ID™ Green/Red Nucleolar/Nuclear Detection Kit, the new addition has been specifically optimized for demanding live cell microscopy applications.

17 Sep 2009

Helicos Biosciences to raise $10 million through private placement

Helicos BioSciences Corporation (NASDAQ: HLCS), a life science company focused on innovative genetic analysis technologies for the research, drug discovery, and diagnostic markets, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with certain new and existing investors, including Atlas Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Versant Ventures (the “Existing Investors”) and Ron Lowy, the Company’s chief executive officer, to raise approximately $10 million in gross proceeds in a private placement through the sale of shares of its common stock and warrants.

17 Sep 2009

Cyntellect announces commercial availability of Stem Cell Manager

Cyntellect, Inc., a privately-held life sciences company commercializing products to advance life science and stem cell research, biopharmaceutical production, and drug discovery, announced today the commercial availability of Stem Cell Manager powered by LEAP.

16 Sep 2009

Santaris Pharma establishes its operations in the U.S.

Santaris Pharma A/S, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and microRNAs, today announced it has established operations in the United States. Internally and through its partners, the Company has a robust drug development pipeline including programs to treat metabolic disorders, infectious and inflammatory diseases, cancer and rare genetic disorders.

16 Sep 2009

LEAD Therapeutics' LT-29 antibiotic effective against most common antibiotic resistant bacteria

LEAD Therapeutics, a privately held drug discovery company, announced the discovery of a novel antibiotic with potent activity against many of the most common antibiotic resistant bacteria.

16 Sep 2009

Defective gene is linked to male infertility

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered a gene involved with the production of sperm that may contribute to male infertility and lead to new approaches to male contraception.

16 Sep 2009

New book on pharmacology launched

Academic Press, a division of Elsevier, would like to announce the new book, Pharmacology: Principles and Practice, authored by Miles Hacker, William S. Messer, II and Kenneth A. Bachmann.

16 Sep 2009

Idera Pharmaceuticals to discuss TLR-targeted drug discovery and development programs

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of DNA- and RNA-based drug candidates targeted to Toll-like Receptors (TLR), today announced that it will discuss its TLR-targeted drug discovery and development programs and provide a general corporate overview at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference on Monday, September 21, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. EDT at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City.

15 Sep 2009

Tripos announces a new program for software developers

Tripos™, a leading provider of drug discovery informatics products and services, today announced the creation of a worldwide Benchware® Pantheon™ Partner Program for software developers.

15 Sep 2009

Genova gains access to Big Pharma's distribution channels

GENova Biotherapeutics Inc. ("GENova"), a cancer drug acquisition and development company, is pleased to announce it has gained access to distribution channels for its promising drug targets through a recently-signed deal with Bridge BioResearch Plc. ("Bridge BioResearch").

15 Sep 2009