Drug Metabolism News and Research

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Pediatric pain experts discuss safety, efficacy of pain medications in children

Can we be certain that pain medications considered safe for adults, based on extensive clinical data and experience, are equally safe for use in young children? Pediatric pain experts discussed this question today in a panel session at the American Pain Society, www.ampainsoc.org, annual scientific meeting and agreed more short term and long-term clinical data are needed to provide assurances about the safety and efficacy of several pain medications in children.

21 May 2011

CESAR, Saladax begin patient enrollment in paclitaxel CEPAC-TDM trial for NSCLC

In collaboration with Saladax Biomedical, Inc., the Central European Society for Anticancer Drug Research announced today that enrollment has begun in the CEPAC-TDM trial of paclitaxel therapeutic drug management with subsequent pharmacokinetic-guided dose adjustment in patients being treated for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

27 Apr 2011

Anacor's AN2728 and GSK '052 new data to be presented at upcoming meetings

Anacor Pharmaceuticals announced today that it will present data on two of its compounds at the following conferences: “Safety and efficacy of AN2728 ointment in a phase 2b dose-ranging bilateral study of mild-to-moderate plaque psoriasis”.

25 Apr 2011

Increased mortality rates seen in chronic Hep C patients with pre-cirrhotic advanced fibrosis

A three-year follow-up study of patients in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial revealed that increased mortality among patients with advanced chronic hepatitis C who received long-term peginterferon therapy was attributed to non-liver related causes and occurred primarily in patients with bridging fibrosis. No pattern to this excess mortality was evident to researchers, but deaths were unrelated to the peginterferon treatment. Full findings are published in the April issue of Hepatology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

7 Apr 2011

Sequential treatment with Entecavir and Lamivudine results in rebound of hepatitis B virus

A two-year trial of entecavir followed by lamivudine (LAM) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection resulted in a virologic rebound rate of 24% and 12% drug-resistance rate. Patients who continued on entecavir therapy throughout the study period had undetectable HBV DNA at the two-year endpoint. Details of this trial are published in the April issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases..

31 Mar 2011

Researchers identify enzyme biomarker that can diagnose early colon cancer

A research team at the University of Colorado Cancer Center has identified an enzyme that could be used to diagnose colon cancer earlier. It is possible that this enzyme also could be a key to stopping the cancer.

28 Mar 2011

RainDance, 454 Life Sciences collaborate to launch core ADME gene screening research panel

RainDance Technologies, Inc., and 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, today announced a collaboration for the development and commercialization of a targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) solution for the simple and cost-effective investigation of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME).

9 Mar 2011

Variation in exposure to sunlight may affect sensitivity of individuals to drugs

A study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown that the body's ability to break down medicines may be closely related to exposure to sunlight, and thus may vary with the seasons.

9 Mar 2011

Ambry, RainDance enter new collaboration to develop and commercialize ADME screening

RainDance Technologies, Inc. and Ambry Genetics, today announced a new collaboration focused on the development and commercialization of a comprehensive drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion genetic screening panel for use on next-generation sequencing systems.

8 Mar 2011

Affymetrix releases complete genotyping data set on its website

Affymetrix, Inc. today announced the release of a complete data set of 5 million variants on its website.

3 Mar 2011

Advion to establish new laboratory at Purdue Research Park near Indianapolis

Advion BioServices Inc., a provider of contract bioanalytical research services, announced that it will establish a laboratory here, creating 49 immediate jobs and up to 66 jobs by 2015.

From Advion 2 Mar 2011

Bioanalysis accepted for coverage by EMBASE & Scopus

EMBASE is a premier online resource for biomedical literature, with over 24 million indexed records and more than 7,500 current, mostly peer-reviewed journals, EMBASE quickly and accurately delivers biomedical answers. Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources covering nearly 18,000 titles from more than 5,000 publishers.

1 Mar 2011

Lack of health insurance limits Hepatitis C patients' access to latest antiviral therapy

New research has determined that patients in the U.S. with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are twice as likely to not have health insurance coverage compared with those without the disease. In fact researchers found only a third of HCV infected Americans have access to antiviral therapy; the remaining are either uninsured or not candidates for therapy due to treatment contraindications. Details of this study are published in the March issue of Hepatology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

24 Feb 2011

23andMe project aims at validating highly scalable pharmacogenomics research

23andMe has launched a project funded by the National Institutes of Health which is aimed at validating 23andMe's highly-scalable platform for pharmacogenomics research. The company received $190,000 in stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for "Web-based Phenotyping for Genome-Wide Association Studies of Drug Response" from NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute.

17 Dec 2010

Transgenomic signs definitive agreement to acquire diagnostic business of Clinical Data

Transgenomic, Inc. announced today the signing of a definitive agreement for Transgenomic to acquire the diagnostic business of Clinical Data, Inc. This acquisition includes a suite of proprietary genetic commercial tests, certain proprietary biomarker assays, and the CLIA-certified laboratory operations of Clinical Data for a purchase price of approximately $15.4 million, primarily in cash and notes.

29 Nov 2010

New pharmacogenetic test enables a personalized medicine approach

Luminex Corporation, today announced that it has commercially launched its first pharmacogenetic test, the xTAG CYP2D6 Kit, which recently received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

From Luminex 17 Nov 2010

Optivia, UCSF receive SBIR grant to develop transporter-based assay system

Optivia Biotechnology Inc., a leading provider of in vitro transporter assay services, today announced that the company and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an innovative system for characterizing the role transporter proteins play in the disposition of drugs by the liver.

16 Nov 2010

Research on P450 compound I may help eliminate toxins

Chemical reactions are happening all over the place all the time on the sun, on the Earth and in our bodies. In many cases, enzymes help make these reactions occur. One family of enzymes, called cytochrome P450s (P450), is important because they help us eliminate toxins.

15 Nov 2010

New laboratory-engineered livers could provide solution to donor shortage

Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have reached an early, but important, milestone in the quest to grow replacement livers in the lab. They are the first to use human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function - at least in a laboratory setting like human livers. The next step is to see if the livers will continue to function after transplantation in an animal model.

1 Nov 2010

Researchers generate bioengineered human liver organoid using bioscaffold

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine demonstrated the generation of a bioengineered human liver organoid using a liver bioscaffold made from an intact liver extracellular matrix, and filled (seeded) with primary human liver progenitor and endothelial cells.