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.

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

IVIS Lumina XR in vivo imaging system from Caliper Life Sciences

Caliper Life Sciences, Inc., a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, today introduced the IVIS Lumina XR in vivo imaging system, the latest addition to the IVIS product family.

14 Sep 2009

CDI and VivoMedica launch pharmaceutical industry consortium

Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) and VivoMedica plc announce the launch of CARDIOTOX - a pharmaceutical industry consortium to validate a human cell model and analysis system for preclinical cardiotoxicity testing of pharmaceutical candidate compounds.

14 Sep 2009

FDA approves Theravance's VIBATIV for treating complicated skin and skin structure infections

Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX) and Astellas Pharma US, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved VIBATIV™ (telavancin) for the treatment of adult patients with complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI) caused by susceptible Gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) strains.

14 Sep 2009

USPTO allows Isis an additional patent for single-stranded RNAi technology

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed an Isis patent application that further expands the scope of the "Crooke" patent estate. The newly allowed patent broadly covers methods of cleaving a target RNA via a double-stranded ribonuclease mechanism, including the RNAi mechanism, with chemically modified, single-stranded RNA-containing drugs.

11 Sep 2009

Ascent Therapeutics demonstrates Pepducin efficacy

Ascent Therapeutics announced today that the Company has demonstrated efficacy in preclinical models in two Pepducin projects. One of the projects targets CXCR4, a key regulator of stem cell and inflammatory cell homeostasis. A second project has yielded the first potent Pepducin agonists for an undisclosed cardiovascular target.

11 Sep 2009

Esperance Pharmaceuticals begins human clinical trials of its EP-100 cancer therapeutic candidate

Drug discovery and development company Esperance Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has begun enrollment and dosing of patients in a Phase 1 study of EP-100 in patients with advanced solid tumors. EP-100, the lead candidate from Esperance's Cationic Lytic Peptide (CLYP(TM)) platform technology, is a targeted membrane-disrupting peptide (tMDP) designed to seek and destroy cancer cells that over-express luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) receptors on their surfaces.

10 Sep 2009

Aperio Technologies forges alliance with HistoRx to provide an integrated whole-slide imaging system

Aperio Technologies, Inc., (Aperio), a global leader in digital pathology for the healthcare and life sciences industry, and HistoRx, Inc., (HistoRx), a leader in the emerging field of tissue-based assays for targeted patient treatment, have entered into a partnership to provide an integrated solution for whole-slide imaging with fluorescence.

10 Sep 2009

ADDF's grant to Abiant for developing accurate imaging diagnostic approach

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) announced today that it is providing a grant of $200,000 to Abiant, Inc. (Deerfield, IL), for the development of a highly accurate imaging diagnostic for Alzheimer's Disease.

9 Sep 2009

BioLeap and GSK collaborate to discover novel medicines

BioLeap and GSK have entered into an agreement whereby BioLeap will design novel lead compounds for "difficult" drug targets. The targets (not disclosed) are ones for which conventional approaches, like high throughput screening, have failed to yield a viable chemical starting point. Typically these are in areas of high unmet medical need.

9 Sep 2009

Applications invited from scientists for LBD Biomarker Research Award

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) invite scientists from the biotechnology industry and academia worldwide to apply for a new collaborative research grant award entitled Lewy Body Dementia Biomarker Research Award.

8 Sep 2009

Proteostasis Therapeutics to use GeneGo's MetaCore integrated software

GeneGo, Inc., the leading systems biology tools company, announced today that Proteostasis Therapeutics has licensed its data mining and analysis platform, MetaCore. Proteostasis Therapeutics is the first company dedicated to the discovery of novel small molecule therapeutics based upon understanding the body's Proteostasis Network. The Proteostasis Network maintains the body's natural balance of proteins to protect us from numerous diseases.

8 Sep 2009

Zinc finger nucleases utilized for modifying hESCs and hiPSCs

Scientists from The Whitehead Institute used zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) designed by Sangamo BioSciences, Inc., (Nasdaq: SGMO) to efficiently and precisely modify the genomes of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).

8 Sep 2009

Newly established McClay Foundation to encourage healthcare research in Northern Ireland

Speaking last week Sir Allen McClay, Chairman of the Almac Group, formally announced the establishment of the McClay Foundation, a charitable trust, one of the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.

8 Sep 2009

Small molecule inhibitors could create new combination therapies

Scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center have discovered a unique method of attack that may be used to inhibit signaling enzymes called kinases, which often have a role in sustaining drug-resistant cancerous cells. They have confirmed that IPA-3, a small molecular inhibitor of a kinase called PAK1, targets the enzyme's regulatory domain, mimicking how enzymes are naturally regulated within cells.

8 Sep 2009

StrataTest to be launched in the European market

Stratatech Corp., a privately-held regenerative medicine company, today announced that it will launch its StrataTest full-thickness human skin model to the European market at EUROTOX 2009, the annual meeting of the Federation of European Toxicologists and the European Societies of Toxicology. This year’s meeting is being held in Dresden, Germany, Sept. 13-16.

4 Sep 2009