Pharmaceutical News

RSS

Watson, Natco confirm development agreement for generic Revlimid

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Natco Pharma Limited today confirmed an exclusive, U.S. development and license agreement, to develop and commercialize lenalidomide 5, 10, 15 and 25 mg tablets. The companies also confirmed that Natco has filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval to market its lenalidomide 5, 10, 15 and 25 mg product. Natco's lenalidomide tablets are generic versions of Celgene's Revlimid ® Tablets.

7 Dec 2010

Breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen anxious to have CYP2D6 genetic test

While the medical community continues to debate the benefits of CYP2D6 genetic testing for women on the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen, patients using the medication are anxious to have the tests. According to a new survey of more than 700 women with breast cancer currently taking tamoxifen, almost 80 percent of respondents would choose to have a genetic test that determines CYP2D6 genotype, yet only 14 percent of these women have been tested. CYP2D6 is an enzyme that influences how well the body processes tamoxifen into its more active form.

7 Dec 2010

Intellipharmaceutics files generic 30 mg Focalin XR ANDA with FDA

Intellipharmaceutics International Inc., today announced that it has filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval to market a generic of the 30 mg strength of Focalin XR® (dexmethylphenidate hydrochloride). The application for the 30 mg strength is filed as an amendment to the ANDA that Intellipharmaceutics had previously filed for the 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg strengths of the drug.

7 Dec 2010

Idis to manage ViroPharma's named patient program

ViroPharma Incorporated and Idis, the global leader in developing long-term strategic solutions to therapeutic access, today announced that the two companies have partnered to facilitate access to certain ViroPharma products through a named patient program (NPP). ViroPharma's NPP, developed and managed by Idis, will allow international healthcare professionals to prescribe certain products to individual patients until the time that approval is sought in local countries.

7 Dec 2010

Low dose of aspirin reduces occurrence of several common cancers: Study

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has contributed to a study showing that a low dose of aspirin reduces the occurrence of several common cancers. The study is published in today's Lancet.

7 Dec 2010

ADHD drug market will decrease from $5 billion in 2009 to $4.1 billion in 2019: Report

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug market in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan will fluctuate modestly over the next decade, decreasing from $5 billion in 2009 to a trough in 2013 before climbing to $4.1 billion in 2019.

7 Dec 2010

Cylene Pharmaceuticals to present data on CK2 inhibitor at ASH Annual Meeting

Cylene Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has been selected to present data describing the activity of their first-in-class CK2 inhibitor at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, to be held on December 4-7 in Orlando, FL, the company announced today. Kenna Anderes, VP Cancer Biology at Cylene, will discuss research on targeting CK2, a protein kinase that is essential for the progression of multiple myeloma but that has not been previously exploited as an anticancer target.

7 Dec 2010

NIH scientists consider prospects for universal influenza vaccine

The costly, time-consuming process of making, distributing and administering millions of seasonal flu vaccines would become obsolete if researchers could design a vaccine that confers decades-long protection from any flu virus strain. Making such a universal influenza vaccine is feasible but licensing it may require innovation on several fronts, including finding new ways to evaluate the efficacy of vaccine candidates in clinical trials, conclude scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

7 Dec 2010

Campaign to inoculate millions across Africa against meningitis kicks off in Burkina Faso

On Monday, a campaign started in Burkina Faso to "inoculate tens of millions of West Africans with a new vaccine in what scientists hope will be the beginning of the end of ravaging meningitis epidemics" across the continent, the New York Times reports.

7 Dec 2010

Study: Mixing exenatide with insulin provides better blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes patients

A new study finds that combining the newer diabetes drug exenatide with insulin provides better blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes than insulin alone and helps promote weight loss.

7 Dec 2010

New drug appears to help patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

A new drug appears to help chronic myeloid leukemia patients who are out of treatment options after first- and second-line drugs have failed them or because their cancer cells have a mutation that makes them resistant from the start, researchers reported at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

7 Dec 2010

Boceprevir drug may cure hepatitis C

The outlook for patients with hepatitis C continues to improve as results from a clinical trial led by a Saint Louis University researcher found that the drug boceprevir helped cure hard-to-treat patients. The findings were reported at the 61st annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease's earlier in November.

7 Dec 2010

Drug prescribed for Parkinson's disease may also treat restless leg syndrome: MCG researchers

A drug prescribed for Parkinson's disease may also treat restless leg syndrome without the adverse side effects of current therapies, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

7 Dec 2010

Researchers develop new drugs to prevent post-traumatic stress syndrome

Post-traumatic stress syndrome - when a severely stressful event triggers exaggerated and chronic fear - affects nearly 8 million people in the United States and is hard to treat. In a preclinical study, Northwestern Medicine scientists have for the first time identified the molecular cause of the debilitating condition and prevented it from occurring by injecting calming drugs into the brain within five hours of a traumatic event.

7 Dec 2010

Champions Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Industries sign Master Service Agreement

Champions Biotechnology, Inc., an oncology drug development company with a predictive translational platform aimed at accelerating the development and enhancing the value of oncology drugs, announced that a Master Service Agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has been commissioned for the testing of a novel anti-angiogenic compound in the Champions Tumorgraft™ platform.

7 Dec 2010

Ancora receives two federal grants to develop vaccine for malaria, staphylococcus aureus

Ancora Pharmaceuticals announced today that it received two federal grants under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Program to continue funding its groundbreaking research and development of vaccine candidates to prevent malaria and infection by staphylococcus aureus.

7 Dec 2010

No evidence of toxicity in hemophilia B patients enrolled in gene therapy trial

Investigators report no evidence of toxicity in the four hemophilia B patients enrolled to date in a gene therapy trial using a vector under development at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and UCL (University College London) to correct the inherited bleeding disorder.

7 Dec 2010

Experimental flu vaccine triggers immune response, protects against flu

Vaccine production hinges on the availability of hundreds of millions of eggs - and even with the vaccine, flu still claims somewhere around 36,000 lives in the United States during a typical year.

7 Dec 2010

One shot, cheap meningitis vaccine now available in Africa

As a boon to millions of children who die of meningitis, a cheap new vaccine for bacterial meningitis debuted today with the launching of an immunization drive in the West African country of Burkina Faso, in the first stage of an effort that could rid sub-Saharan Africa of the primary cause of meningitis, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced.

6 Dec 2010

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Galderma expand their multi-year collaboration agreement

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class, anti-infective compounds for the treatment and prevention of antibiotic-resistant infections, and Galderma, a global leading pharmaceutical company dedicated exclusively to the field of dermatology, announce the expansion of their multi-year collaboration agreement. Based on positive data assessing the activity of NovaBay's Aganocide compounds against impetigo, Galderma has agreed to exercise its option for this indication.

6 Dec 2010