Pharmaceutical News

RSS

Concert earns $4M milestone payment from GSK collaboration

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has achieved a milestone in its strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline for its HIV protease inhibitor development program, resulting in a $4 million milestone payment to Concert.

20 Jun 2011

Ground breaking treatment for Cystic Fibrosis

An international research team led by Queen's University have developed a ground breaking treatment for Cystic Fibrosis sufferers. The new drug will benefit sufferers who have the 'Celtic Gene', a genetic mutation which is particularly common in Ireland.

20 Jun 2011

One in ten Europe's middle-aged citizens took antidepressants during 2010

New research from the University of Warwick and the IZA Institute in Bonn shows that 10% of middle-aged Europeans took antidepressants in 2010. The researchers looked in detail at the lives of a randomly selected sample of nearly 30,000 Europeans. The study covered 27 countries.

20 Jun 2011

Chengdu Tianyin files renewal application for High Tech Enterprise Status

Tianyin Pharmaceutical Co., Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specializes in patented biopharmaceutical medicine, modernized traditional Chinese medicine, branded generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients today announced that the operating subsidiary of TPI, Chengdu Tianyin Pharmaceutical, has submitted the application for the renewal of its High Tech Enterprise Status at Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China.

20 Jun 2011

Pharma IQ publishes results of Industry-wide distribution survey

Pharma IQ has just published the results of an Industry-wide Pharmaceutical Distribution Survey, conducted recently among 3,000 pharmaceutical distribution specialist with over 83 % of those surveyed directly responsible for distribution at their respective companies.

20 Jun 2011

Risperidone recall by J&J

Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson, recalled about 16,000 bottles of its Risperdal schizophrenia drug on reports of an uncharacteristic odor. The recall affects one lot that was shipped between Aug. 27, 2010, and Feb. 15, 2011.

19 Jun 2011

FDA approves NULOJIX

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved NULOJIX, the first selective T-cell costimulation blocker indicated for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a kidney transplant, in combination with basiliximab induction, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), and corticosteroids.

18 Jun 2011

Watson Pharmaceuticals confirms SEASONIQUE patent challenge

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading integrated global pharmaceutical company, today confirmed that the United States District Court for the District of Nevada denied Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction and request for a temporary restraining order preventing Watson's launch of generic SEASONIQUE and ethinyl estradiol.

18 Jun 2011

HPV vaccine shows success in young Australian women, study says

"A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, triggered by the human papillomavirus (HPV), has helped reduce the number of teenage girls developing abnormalities in their cervix by as much as 50 percent in a study in Australia," according to a report published Friday in the Lancet, Reuters reports.

18 Jun 2011

Controversy over F.D.A.-Avastin decision to reignite June 28-29 with new round of hearings

Controversy over the F.D.A.'s proposal to withdraw approval of Avastin for breast cancer treatment will reignite June 28-29 with a new round of hearings. One oncologist who will be monitoring the hearings is Dr. Frederick C. Tucker Jr. of Fredericksburg Oncology in Virginia, whose recent New York Times op ed defended the F.D.A.'s position on scientific grounds.

18 Jun 2011

Economist examines decade of changes in vaccine field

The Economist examines how "the past decade has seen changes in how vaccines are developed, financed and delivered - solving, at least partially, the conundrum of the vaccine market: poor regions have ample demand for vaccines but little ability to pay for them. As a result, immunisation rates in the poor world have soared."

18 Jun 2011

Niclosamide drug effective against colon cancer metastasis

A compound that for about 60 years has been used as a drug against tapeworm infection is also apparently effective against colon cancer metastasis, as studies using mice have now shown.

18 Jun 2011

RHEI receives Chinese SFDA acceptance letter for MuGard

ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, diabetes, and RNAi, announced that its MuGard partner in China, RHEI Pharmaceuticals has received the acceptance letter from the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) of China acknowledging all necessary documentation for the MuGard has been submitted and accepted.

17 Jun 2011

Joint venture to manufacture and distribute tenofovir gel in Africa

CONRAD and the South African Government's Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) on Tuesday announced a license agreement that grants TIA the rights to manufacture and distribute tenofovir gel in Africa, according to a CONRAD statement.

17 Jun 2011

Fast-acting antidepressant effect of ketamine

UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists are shedding new light on why the anesthetic drug ketamine produces a fast-acting antidepressant response in patients with treatment-resistant depression.

17 Jun 2011

Medical societies urge diabetes patients to remain on their prescribed medications

Diabetes leaders today are responding to the announcement made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday that the use of the diabetes medication Actos (pioglitazone) for more than one year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer.

17 Jun 2011

PEG hydrogel sealant effectively encloses surgical wounds after spinal procedures

A gel that creates a watertight seal to close surgical wounds provides a significant advance in the treatment of patients following spinal procedures, effectively sealing spinal wounds 100 percent of the time, a national multicenter randomized study led by researchers at UC Davis has found.

17 Jun 2011

Menafrivac more effective, less expensive than older meningitis vaccines, studies say

The meningococcal vaccine MenAfriVac, which is made by the Indian generic drug company Serum Institute, is "dramatically better" at producing a protective effect among African children in three countries than "older so-called meningococcal polysaccaride vaccines, including Mencevax from GlaxoSmithKline," according to a paper describing two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports.

17 Jun 2011

New Australian drug shows positive response in patients with multiple myeloma blood cancer

Australian monoclonal antibody company, Immune System Therapeutics Limited (IST), today announced it would double patient recruitment in its Phase II trial for a breakthrough antibody treatment for terminal blood cancer.

16 Jun 2011

CEVEC and Catalent Pharma Solutions offer joint cell line development service

CEVEC Pharmaceuticals, the German developer of a novel, market leading human protein expression system derived from amniocytes, and Catalent Pharma Solutions, a leading global drug development and delivery solutions provider, announced today a joint commercial cell line development service for pharma and biotech customers worldwide. The offering combines the benefits of CEVEC’s human cell line, CAP-Technology, with Catalent’s unique GPEx® (Gene Product Expression) Technology to generate high expressing stable human cell lines in a much shorter timeframe than traditional methods.

16 Jun 2011