Pharmaceutical News

RSS

Formaldehyde & other chemicals declared carcinogenic: Report

The government, last Friday added formaldehyde, a substance found in plastics and other commonly used products, to a list of known carcinogens and warned that the chemical styrene might cause cancer.

13 Jun 2011

New drug more effective than standard treatment to prevent heart-attack deaths

Robert Storey, Professor of Cardiology at the University of Sheffield's Department of Cardiovascular Science, presented findings today that confirm one in five deaths in the year following a heart attack could be prevented if a new drug, ticagrelor, was used instead of the standard treatment, clopidogrel.

13 Jun 2011

Alios, Vertex sign worldwide license agreement to develop new hepatitis C combination medicines

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and Alios BioPharma, Inc. today announced an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement that will add two distinct nucleotide analogues to Vertex's hepatitis C portfolio.

13 Jun 2011

Servier, Cortex sign new option agreement for AMPAKINE technology

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. entered into a new agreement with Servier to sell its remaining rights to the jointly discovered high impact AMPAKINE compound, CX1632.

13 Jun 2011

Mystic's key manufacturing technology for drug, biologic delivery systems receives U.S. patent

Mystic Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announces today that it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,963,089, "Deep Draw Container Forming Method," for a key manufacturing technology of its VersiDoser and VRx2 drug and biologic delivery systems.

13 Jun 2011

New decade of vaccines

This Lancet series examines vaccine technology, including the developments expected over the coming decade and what we can expect from translation of the latest vaccine science.

13 Jun 2011

Risky behavior, psychiatric disorders and substance abuse contribute to opioid overdose

Deaths related to prescription opioid therapy are under intense scrutiny, prompting those in pain medicine-clinicians, patient advocates, and regulators-to understand the causes behind avoidable mortality in legitimately treated patients.

13 Jun 2011

New swine flu variant shows some resistance to drugs, report says

A new variant of H1N1 (swine) influenza that is easily spread and retains some resistance to the two major drugs used to treat flu has been detected in Singapore and Australia, according to a report from the WHO's influenza research group published in the journal Eurosurveillance, Bloomberg reports.

13 Jun 2011

FDA approves Valeant's Potiga Tablets for treatment of partial-onset seizures

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Potiga Tablets, a potassium channel opener, as adjunctive treatment of partial-onset seizures in patients aged 18 years and older.

13 Jun 2011

Low-cost meningitis vaccine cuts cases in African countries, data show

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger recorded the lowest number of meningitis A cases in an epidemic season this year after the MenAfriVac vaccine was introduced, data from the WHO show, the nonprofit that helped develop the shot, Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

13 Jun 2011

Hanwha, Merck partner to develop and commercialize HD203

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Hanwha Chemical Corporation today announced that they have entered into an exclusive global agreement to develop and commercialize a candidate biosimilar form of Enbrel.

13 Jun 2011

Valeant Pharmaceuticals receives FDA approval for Potiga

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Potiga.

13 Jun 2011

LA/hypnosis combination during surgery can aid healing process, reduce drug use and hospital stay time

Using a combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia (LA) for certain types of surgery can aid the healing process and reduce drug use and time spent in hospital, anaesthesiologists have found. The combination could also help avoid cancer recurrence and metastases, according to new research to be presented today at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam.

13 Jun 2011

Merck receives FDA approval for redesigned drug container labels

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today is announcing the approval of Merck's redesigned drug container labels that include a new standardized format to improve readability and provide better information on product and strength differentiation.

13 Jun 2011

Larger trial study needed to decide fate of niacin

Niaspan is a cholesterol drug manufactured by Abbott Laboratories. Doctors have customarily prescribed Niacin to raise levels of HDL ("good" cholesterol) in patients taking a statin pill that is successfully lowering their LDL ("bad" cholesterol).

10 Jun 2011

Experts discuss impact of new vaccines on global health

This Malaria Policy Center blog post describes the event "Spurring health and wealth through medical breakthroughs," during which Washington Post columnist and ONE Fellow Michael Gerson; John Lusingu, principal research scientist at the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research and co-principal investigator in the RTS,S malaria vaccine trial in Tanzania for the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative; and Margaret McGlynn, board member of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and former president of Merck Global Vaccines and Anti-Infectives, "brought unique perspectives to the impact of new vaccines on many global health issues, particularly HIV/AIDS and malaria".

10 Jun 2011

Researchers and advocates form new vaccine foundation

Researchers and "advocates for all vaccine research today launched yet another effort to increase funding and coordination," ScienceInsider reports. The Foundation for Vaccine Research "has recruited a board stacked with several prominent HIV/AIDS researchers," the article notes.

10 Jun 2011

Amylin disappointed with U.S. District Court's ruling in BYETTA preliminary injunction

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today issued the following statement regarding the decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California to deny its motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin Eli Lilly and Company from engaging in anticompetitive activity and breaching its diabetes collaboration agreement with Amylin.

10 Jun 2011

Mothers' B vitamin intake protects children against intestinal tumors

Mice born to mothers who are fed a diet supplemented with B vitamins are less likely to develop intestinal tumors, report scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University.

10 Jun 2011

LGL to host third annual pharmacogenetic conference on 8-9th November 2011

London Genetics Limited, an expert in the use of pharmacogenetics in clinical drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce that its third annual pharmacogenetic conference will feature top-level presentations from players in all parts of the healthcare chain.

10 Jun 2011