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.

Direct relationship between inflammation and glucose levels

Scientists at Galileo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have demonstrated a direct relationship between inflammation and glucose levels. Through its recently established metabolic disease program, Galileo confirmed in preclinical models that inhibiting lipoxygenases, known mediators of inflammatory response, significantly lowers blood glucose levels in animal models of diabetes.

26 Jul 2005

New program will help fill a drug-discovery void as pharmaceutical companies have largely abandoned natural products research

The natural world has been medicine's most effective arsenal, providing life-saving antibiotics and our most potent anti-cancer drugs.

20 Jul 2005

Potential use of NH neurotransmitters as novel source for psychiatric drugs

Physiologists and medical researchers have long recognized the important endocrine roles played by the pituitary hormones oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) on peripheral systems in lactation, uterine contraction and urine concentration.

19 Jul 2005

Spontaneous contractions suppressed in late-term rat pregnancy

A long-time aim of obstetrical research has been to find agents that could delay or diminish pre-term labor because even today pre-term birth is a leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity.

19 Jul 2005

Tricirbine may help fight cancers

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, working in partnership with the University of South Florida (USF), has discovered a new use for an old, previously discredited anti-cancer drug that could add another weapon in the arsenal against several cancers, including tumors of the breast, ovary, colon, skin and prostate.

27 Jun 2005

Light used to regulate protein synthesis

Proteins are the puzzle-pieces of life, involved in how organisms grow and flourish, but studying their complex biological processes in living systems has been extremely difficult.

27 Jun 2005

Naturally produced 'cannabis' in the brain helps with pain relief

Researchers in the United States have found that a cannabis like chemical produced naturally in the brain helps with pain relief.

23 Jun 2005

Unique arrays of proteins tethered onto self-assembled DNA nanostructures

In the fifty-year history since the structure of DNA was first revealed, what was once a Nobel prize- winning research discovery has become an omnipresent cultural icon co-opted for promoting everything from fragrances to musical acts.

20 Jun 2005

Columbia University launches multi-year campaign to support stem cell researc

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has announced that it is halfway toward realizing the first phase of a multi-year campaign to build upon the university’s groundbreaking stem cell research and lead the effort to fully realize the therapeutic potential of stem cells.

16 Jun 2005

New series of human drug targets available to all researchers

The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), an Anglo-Canadian charitable consortium of public and private agencies including Oxford University, announced recently that it has delivered its first 50 human and malaria protein structures into the public domain on budget and two months ahead of schedule.

6 Jun 2005

Ranbaxy makes further three filings of its Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) formulations

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited has announced that the Company has made further three filings of its Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) formulations, to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its approval under the latter's pre-qualification project for HIV/AIDS drugs.

30 May 2005

Pharmaceutical industry faces multiple challenges - future lies in drug pipeline sustainability

High clinical development costs coupled with declining drug discovery success rates are causing productivity levels to fall in the global pharmaceuticals industry. The imminent patent expiry of several major blockbuster drugs and the related rise of cheaper generic alternatives is further exacerbating the situation.

25 May 2005

Market forces alone are not sufficient to produce new drugs needed for children with cancer

Faced with "a near absence of research in pediatric cancer drug discovery," the IOM report recommends forming new public-private partnerships among government, industry, researchers, advocacy groups and other parties to lead research and development.

23 May 2005

Giving children access to drug clinical trials is crucial, clofarabine approval shows

The accelerated approval of the drug clofarabine to treat relapsed or refractory pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) demonstrates the importance of offering children rapid access to new treatments through clinical trials, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Refractory or relapsed ALL is a disease that resists treatment.

2 May 2005

Bugs in the gut could help doctors develop individualised healthcare

The success of personalised healthcare hinges on a better understanding of how microbes in the gut interact with different medicines report scientists from Imperial College London and Astra Zeneca.

13 Apr 2005

Study may lead to a better understanding of how antidepressants like Prozac work

According to results published in today's issue of the journal Neuron, a study in mice proposes that dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems in the brain occasionally get their signals crossed, causing delays in stabilizing mood.

7 Apr 2005

Genomics and proteomics to increase the efficiency of drug discovery and development

While the United Sates is still the world leader, Europe is having a good deal of success in the field of advanced genomics and proteomics research. Significant government funding together with the presence of large pharmaceutical companies has made Europe a major competitor in the efforts to deploy genomics and proteomics as vital tools in drug discovery and development.

5 Apr 2005

New ion channel drug targets to emerge in pharmaceutical discovery

The identification and structural determination of channel proteins, and their validation as therapeutic targets using high throughput cell based and multiplexed screening technologies, have furnished an increase role for ion channel targets in the drug discovery and development pipelines in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

4 Apr 2005

Sea floor may yield disease cures

On Monday, the Harbor Branch drug discovery group will begin a 2-week expedition to explore the Straits of Florida in search of organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.

3 Apr 2005

Ranbaxy files additional Anti-Retroviral (ARV) agents with the World Health Organization

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL) announced today that the Company has made two additional filings of its Anti-Retroviral (ARV) agents with the World Health Organization (WHO) for its approval, taking the total number of Ranbaxy ARV filings submitted with the WHO to five.

23 Mar 2005