For the second time in two years, pharmaceutical bigwig Glaxo has strengthened its ties with Anglo-German company Cellzome, by signing a deal worth up to €475 million (US$644.3 million). The collaboration gives GSK an exclusive right to Cellzome’s epigenetics platform technology in the discovery of oral small-molecule drugs for treating immuno-inflammatory diseases.
The deal kicks off [...]

According to a commentary published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pfizer’s experimental osteoporosis drug lasofoxifene, which is awaiting U.S. regulatory approval, works about as well as currently approved drugs, but not much better.
Overall, lasofoxifene looks good, according to lead study author Dr. Steven Cummings, professor and director of the San Francisco [...]

Recent recommendations released as part of a report from the Senate Finance Committee on the controversial drug, may spell the doom for GlaxoSmithKline’s multi-billion dollar diabetes drug Avandia as it has been linked to heart problems.
The call for the drug’s demise comes as Dr. David Graham and Dr. Kate Gelperin, both epidemiologists with the FDA, [...]

Researchers from Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) have for the first time developed a highly sensitive means of detecting the seven types of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) simultaneously.
 Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are the most potent natural toxins known. The family of BoNTs comprises seven antigenically distinct serotypes (A to G) that are produced by various toxigenic [...]

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a way to propel and direct microscopic-sized worms (C. elegans nematodes) along a narrow channel using a mild electric field. The discovery opens up significant possibilities for developing high-throughput micro-screening devices for drug discovery and other applications.
The research is described in the January 21, 2010 issue of Lab on [...]

The recent outbreak of swine flu has raised the need for rapid and efficient supply of vaccines for pandemic and inter pandemic strains.However traditions modes of vaccine production fail to meet this demand. Flu vaccines were first prepared from viruses grown in embryonated eggs. Embryonated eggs are still used today because they are inexpensive, simple, [...]

Mumbai: Roche Diagnostics India Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest diagnostics company by sales, plans to partner with state governments to market health services in the largely untapped semi-urban and rural areas.
Roche Diagnostics, a 100% subsidiary of Swiss-based healthcare group F Hoffmann La Roche Ltd, is the first diagnostics solutions provider proposing to tap the rural market [...]