Archive for the 'Markets' Category
March 2nd, 2011 by admin
Adding to its store of technology weapons, Catalent Pharma can now offer fast-dissolve tablet technology to clients. It obtained the development rights to Lyopan from Pantec. The lyophilized tablets are used for such OTC products as allergy treatments and travel medications, says Catalent. The technology uses less water than other oral dose technologies, reducing not just energy consumption but also sublimation and drying time.
Continue reading ‘Catalent Adds Fast-Dissolve Tech to Oral Dose Arsenal’
March 1st, 2011 by admin
Zymes, a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company, has received a two-year $476,000 grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF), under the Therapeutics Development Initiative Fall 2010 Program, to evaluate the effectiveness of WS-CoQ10 in stopping the progressive loss of dopamine nerve cells in animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Continue reading ‘Zymes Receives Michael Fox Foundation Grant for PD Therapy Research’
February 28th, 2011 by admin
MedTrust Online and Avantra Biosciences have entered into a partnership to involve clinicians in the earliest stages of molecular diagnostic assay development for Avantra Biosciences’ revolutionary QPDx multiplex immunoassay system.
Continue reading ‘MedTrust, Avantra Partner to Develop Biomarker Assays for Cancer’
February 25th, 2011 by admin
Sustained high vaccination coverage is key to preventing deaths from measles. Despite the availability of a vaccine, measles remains an important killer of children worldwide, particularly in less-developed regions where vaccination coverage is limited. A team of researchers, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Colorado, developed and successfully tested a dry powder, live-attenuated measles vaccine that can be inhaled. The novel vaccine was studied in rhesus macaques.
Continue reading ‘Inhalable Measles Vaccine Tested’
February 24th, 2011 by admin
Targeting the neuroinflammatory causes of Parkinson’s disease with a naturally present brain chemical signal could offer a better understanding of the clinical mechanisms of the disease and open a future therapeutic window, reports a team of researchers from the University of South Florida Department Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and the James A. Haley Veterans’ Administration Hospital, Tampa. Brain inflammation has been clearly shown in PD, and the brain’s microglia — small cells that regulate the chemical environment of neural cells — play a role in the inflammatory process and disease progression, said study lead author Paula C. Bickford, PhD, professor of neurosurgery at USF and a senior research career scientist at the Haley VA Hospital.
Continue reading ‘Naturally Occurring Brain Signaling Chemical May Be Useful in Understanding Parkinson’s’
February 15th, 2011 by admin
A startling scientific breakthrough on Type 1 diabetes could help pave the way to a cure or perhaps significantly reduce the need for insulin therapy. A researcher at UT Southwestern, Dr. Roger Unger, reports in the February issue of Diabetes that by shutting down glucagon, a hormone that causes blood sugar to spike in patients with Type 1 diabetes, he was able to restore glucose tolerance to a normal level in mice. Even large doses of glucose failed to derail the therapeutic effect of the glucagon approach.
Continue reading ‘Diabetes Researcher May be ‘Close to a Cure’’
February 14th, 2011 by admin
Every so often, someone sets up a dartboard of likely targets for Big Pharma buyouts. This time, the target-setter is Barron’s, and the focus is on companies with market values of $10 billion or less. Most of them have at least one marketed product: “It’s less dangerous playing smaller outfits with approved drugs than those with treatments still awaiting an okay from an increasingly demanding FDA,” the magazine points out.
Continue reading ‘Which Specialty Drugmakers Should Big Pharma Buy?’
February 11th, 2011 by admin
A new target for the prevention of adverse immune responses identified as factors in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been discovered by researchers at the University of South Florida’s Department of Psychiatry and the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. The CD45 molecule is a receptor on the surface of the brain’s microglia cells, cells that support the brain’s neurons and also participate in brain immune responses.
Continue reading ‘Stimulating the Brain’s Immune Response May Provide Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease’
February 3rd, 2011 by admin
President Barack Obama said on Friday his healthcare overhaul is an important part of efforts to cut the budget deficit and insisted he will not “refight” the battle to pass the law. With emboldened Republicans vowing to repeal or replace the healthcare law he signed last March, Obama reiterated his case that the changes it brings are necessary to help rein in the price of the government-run Medicaid and Medicare insurance programs, a huge chunk of the U.S. budget deficit problem. The Congressional Budget Office said the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.48 trillion for fiscal 2011, up from a $1.07 trillion estimate in August.
Continue reading ‘Obama Will Not Refight Battle Over Healthcare Law’
February 1st, 2011 by admin
More drugmakers are seeing potential in the business of producing copycat versions of expensive biotechnology drugs as U.S. guidelines take shape. The topic was at the forefront of plans discussed by several executives at this week’s JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco. Kevin Sharer, chief executive officer at Amgen Inc, said the world’s largest maker of branded biotechnology drugs would consider entering the “biosimilars” space, particularly in emerging markets like Asia and South America.
Continue reading ‘Copying Biotech Medicine Attracts More Drugmakers’
