Strategies & Technologies Driving Drug Discovery to Market
European Regulators Reject Xeljanz
April 25, 2013 5:00 pm | News | CommentsPfizer Inc. said that the European Union's committee of medical experts has rejected the company's drug Xeljanz for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The European Medicines Agency committee recommended against approving the drug because its benefits did not sufficiently outweigh its risks.
Shareholders Criticize J&J for Mistakes
April 25, 2013 3:52 pm | by Linda A. Johnson | News | CommentsJohnson & Johnson shareholders took the health care giant to task during its annual meeting, citing repeated product recalls, ethical lapses and excessive executive pay. CEO Alex Gorsky took it in stride, promising improvements and saying J&J is making progress.
Pfizer Aims To Cut Generics Impact
April 25, 2013 3:11 pm | by Linda A. Johnson | News | CommentsPfizer Inc. CEO Ian Read said that continuing expirations of drug patents through 2015 will restrain revenue growth, but the world's largest drugmaker is trying to offset that with launches of several medicines and research to create new ones.
Suppressing Protein May Stem Alzheimer's
April 25, 2013 1:01 pm | News | CommentsScientists have discovered a potential strategy for developing treatments to stem the disease process in Alzheimer’s disease. It’s based on unclogging removal of toxic debris that accumulates in patients’ brains, by blocking activity of a little-known regulator protein called CD33.
FLIPR Calcium Assay Offers High Yield
April 25, 2013 12:12 pm | Product Releases | CommentsMolecular Devices has launched the FLIPR Calcium 6 Assay Kits, the latest addition to their range of calcium assay kits to address diversified GPCR and ion channel targets.
Microplate Designed for FCS
April 25, 2013 12:04 pm | Product Releases | CommentsGreiner Bio-One has released the SensoPlate Plus, a 96-well plate with a transparent borosilicate glass bottom and a black cycloolefin frame, SensoPlate Plus was developed especially for use in high-resolution microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.
Magnet Makes NMR Less Costly
April 25, 2013 11:52 am | Product Releases | CommentsJEOL Resonance has developed a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) super conducting magnet that operates on a minimum amount of liquid helium. JEOL's NMR system is capable of acquiring high resolution NMR data when liquid helium is scarce.
Astrazeneca Profit Plunges 31%
April 25, 2013 11:43 am | News | CommentsBritish drug maker AstraZeneca PLC, facing generic competition for some of its biggest products, says first-quarter profits fell 31%. The company also announced that it has received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office in Boston seeking documents relating to standards at its Macclesfield facility.
Aubagio Delays Multiple Sclerosis Onset
April 25, 2013 11:33 am | News | CommentsGenzyme announced positive results from a Phase 3 trial of Aubagio designed to assess whether early initiation of the drug in patients who experienced their first neurological symptoms consistent with clinically isolated syndrome can prevent or delay conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis.
Generic Competition Hammers BMS Profit
April 25, 2013 9:59 am | by Linda A. Johnson | News | CommentsDrugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. posted a 45% drop in first-quarter profit as reduced spending and a sharply lower tax rate couldn't make up for plunging sales from increased generic competition to its blood thinner Plavix, formerly the world's second best-selling drug.
Bayer Profits Up 11.5%
April 25, 2013 3:40 am | News | CommentsGerman pharmaceutical company Bayer AG said that its net profit rose 11.5% in the first quarter as new drugs, led by blood thinner Xarelto, boosted sales. The company also saw stronger demand in emerging markets — which helped overcome weaker business in Europe, which is in a recession.
Eisai Building New Production Plant
April 25, 2013 3:33 am | News | CommentsJapanese drug maker Eisai Co. will build a new plant in Suzhou, eastern China, to make injection products. The plant, which will be located in a production complex owned by Eisai China Inc., is aimed at creating a stable supply chain for injection products in the Chinese market.
PPD InVision Aids Clinical Researchers
April 24, 2013 12:20 pm | Product Releases | CommentsPharmaceutical Product Development LLC introduced PPD InVision, a data solution that consolidates and standardizes data from multiple sources, giving clients real-time access to their clinical trial data.
Microplate Readers Come with Specialty Software
April 24, 2013 12:13 pm | Product Releases | CommentsBiochrom Ltd. has launched its EZ Read range of microplate readers. Biochrom has created not just a dedicated range of instruments but also unique data acquisition and analysis software; Galapagos for EZ Read.
Tamoxifen Enhanced for Aggressive Cancer Treatment
April 24, 2013 12:04 pm | News | CommentsTamoxifen is a time-honored breast cancer drug used to treat millions of women with early-stage and less-aggressive disease. Now a team of researchers has shown how to exploit tamoxifen’s secondary activities so that it might work on more aggressive breast cancer.
