ND-Issue: 4/5/2005
- Various marketing surveys carried out in recent months have predicted the astronomical rise of the use of nanotechnology in many areas to come in years, such as coating technology. When it comes to drug research, however, analysts are uncertain about its market potential. Nevertheless, the first results in this area show that it is certainly worthwhile to continue working with this technology.
American medics at Washington University in St Louis have been able to construct nanoparticles that help to detect the smallest cancer tumors. They make use of the capacity of the metal-laden nanoparticles to stick to tumor cells that are made visible by means of magnetic resonance tomography. Researchers have already successfully tested these methods on mice: Only 30 minutes after injecting the rodents with nanoparticles, it was possible to identify skin cancer tumors. The nanoparticles can also be laden with agents. Using the docking-on mechanism, drugs can be targeted to hit the cancerous focus. The total organism is then no longer laden with agents, as is the case with traditional chemotherapy.
ND-Issue: 03/2005
- May of this year saw yet another breakthrough in stem cell research: A team headed by the South Korean veterinary researcher, Woo Suk Hwang, published findings of such significance that the ethics of stem cell research were once again top of the agenda – and all over the world too. Hwang had become the first person to succeed in cloning embryos from the genetic matter of the incurably sick and had then used these embryos as a source of stem cell lines. The group produced eleven tailor-made stem cell lines in all, for which it had had to use
185 donated egg cells resulting in 31 cloned embryos – a rate efficient enough for therapeutic cloning to make sense. This research, which the South Korean government has been supporting to the tune of several million US dollars, is outlawed in most other countries owing to their much more restrictive laws and regulations.
ND-Issue: 02/2005
- Pharmacokinetics describes how concentrations of both active substances and their catabolic products in bodily fluids and tissue develop over time. It seeks to understand the biological mechanisms that are responsible for this and uses mathematical models to describe how these mechanisms interact. A drug’s pharmacokinetic properties are crucial to its effectiveness, and during the past few years pharmacokinetic predictions have become an increasingly important aspect of drug development. These predictions can be based on the chemical structure of the substance, measurable chemical properties or on in-vitro data. It is not uncommon for pharmacokinetics to be the last major hurdle that has to be taken before the production of a new blockbuster. Pharmaceutical researchers at Bayer, for example, believe that between 20 and 30 percent of the candidate substances they select do not make it to production owing to the fact that they catabolize too fast inside the body.
ND-Issue: 01/2005
- A new synchrotron beamline for protein crystallography at Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute was inaugurated on January 19th, 2005. The x-ray crystallography of large protein complexes and membrane proteins and the time-resolved elucidation of reaction mechanisms now planned often necessitate work on small, weakly diffusing crystals. To obtain good diffraction data nevertheless, the x-rays used must be ultraparallel, highly concentrated and intensive. more
ND-Issue: 5/2004
- Swimming, wrestling, cycling, rowing — did you also enjoy watching the summer Olympics in Greece? Were you, like me, fascinated by the performances of athletes in the various events? Or did the almost daily doping cases in Athens, and the seemingly increasing frequency of medal winners being disqualified by functionaries, detract from the pleasure you derived from the exciting competition at this great sporting occasion?
Nandrolone, erythropoietin (epo) and clenbuterol — therapeutic drugs that are normally used to combat illness — are exploited by athletes to increase their performance. They are but examples of a multitude of substances that are used for doping. The official list of the International Olympics Committee includes several hundred of them!
ND-Issue: 4/2004
- Get those costs down! This is now the paramount objective when it comes to the search for new drugs. Nor is this sur-prising, with average development costs of EUR 800 million per drug. The real question is not why but how, and specific answers are hard to come by. “Pharma 2010; Silicon Reality“, the latest report on this subject by IBM Business Consulting Services, concludes that in the years to come, it should indeed be possible to get development costs for a new drug down to some 200 million dollars, while at the same time cutting average development times from the current 12–14 years to just three to five years. If this vision were to become a reality, then it would be nothing short of a revolution. more
ND-Issue: 3/2004
- Cooperation between academia and industry has always been a touchy issue – hailed and supported by some, but seen with scepticism or even despised by others. Perceptions have changed as has the basis of such collaborations. The past years have brought fusion waves in the pharmaceutical industry reducing the number of potential industrial partners, a rise and subsequent decline in financing for start-up companies, and an increasing assertiveness in the universities’ approach to collaborations.
ND-Issue: 2/2004
- Planned investments in research and development have given rise to cautious optimism in the worldwide market for drug research. Following the general economic recession in 2002, a year that was predominately characterized by consolidation and reductions in R&D spending in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, a slight increase in 2003 R&D budgets is recognizable. This is the opinion expressed in a study recently completed by the business consultants Frost & Sullivan. The good news hereby is that they expect this trend to continue. According to the analysis, worldwide drug research spending was 19.6 billion US$ in 2002, and will increase to 25.1 billion US$ in 2006.
ND-Issue: 1/2004
- Last year I started a series of articles about nanoparticles in NewDrugs as author or co-author. The topics ranged from new surface modified nanoparticles as colloidal drug carrier systems for antisense and gene therapy, new analytical tools in Biotechnology to nanoparticulate delivery of cancer vaccines. This series will end with a study of cellular uptake characteristics of different biopolymer based nanoparticles and evaluation of their in vitro targeting capability in the current issue (page 20 - 23).
ND-Issue: 6/2003
- In the early years of the 20th century, mass spectrometry (MS) entered the stage of analytical methods with a spectacular discovery – a proof of the isotopic nature of elements. Decades passed until the challenging problem of intact and sensitive detection of organic molecules and of biopolymers by MS was solved in the mid 1980s. For the final steps in this development, namely the introduction and application of suitable mass spectrometric ionisation techniques, two Nobel Prices were awarded last year.
ND-Issue: 5/2003
- Growing quality-consciousness is one driving force behind the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries. The development of new technologies for finding qualitatively high-value data in drug discovery should so, on a long-term basis, save R&D time and money. We have, after all, become wearisome of the continual discussion on the meaningful and effective evaluation of the myriads of data that are produced by biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies day after day. more
ND-Issue: 4/2003
- Despite the gloomy global economy and the travel restrictions of some companies, the recent Miptec conference in Basel on enabling technologies in
drug discovery was an unqualified success. Nearly 900 scientists participated
to some extent, and the extensive vendor exhibition was a big attraction
as always.
ND-Issue: 3/2003
- One of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century was doubtless the double helix structure of DNA. Elucidated by Francis Crick and James Watson in 1953, it is the basis of modern molecular biology. Without it, Science would not have come so far in the development of new medicines and therapies against illness. Automated high-throughput procedures and the continually on-going development of computer analyses assist in the finding and analysis of the building blocks of life. Above all, however, in winning from them new knowledge on the effective treatment of illnesses.
ND-Issue: 2/2003
- Pharmaceutical biotechnology has truly come of age. By the end of 2002 over 100 biopharmaceuticals had been approved for general medical use, in some world regions at least. The global industry is valued at Euro 30 billion and some 250 million people have benefited from these drugs to date. Within the EU 88 products have now been approved, representing 36% of all new approvals since 1995. Although maturing rapidly, the sector is by no means static.
ND-Issue: 1/2003
- The importance of Quality Management (QM) for ‘classical pharmaceutical’ as well as for ‘biological’ medicinal products has changed significantly during the last years. Fundamentally, the basic requirements ‘to establish, document and implement an effective system for managing quality’ have remained unchanged. The expectations of authorities and industry on the effectiveness and efficiency of Quality units (Quality Assurance as well as Quality Control) however have increased dramatically. Nowadays Quality units are in the focus of inspections by authorities like FDA to assure adequate quality of products and processes. In addition management within the companies also expects a significant contribution to cost competitiveness e.g. by avoidance of failed batches or quality derived recalls.
ND-Issue: 8/2002
- The number of pharmaceuticals produced by means of gene technology that are available on the world market is impressive. Most of them have been developed by North American companies. At present, a great number of approved speciality drugs are produced by genetic engineering and offered within the EU (905 as of November 2002).These are based on only 49 different active ingredients, however. more
ND-Issue: 6/2002
- It is high time that Science was defended, that it is made clear, that the Government will not allow stray protests against Science to prevent us from taking on the challenge and making the best of our opportunities." Every siotechnologist/scientist would surely like to hear this statement of Tony Blair, England's Prime Minister, from his own Head of Government. Particularly if these strong words were also followed by political decisions. more
ND-Issue: 5/2002
- The overall biochip industry will see significant growth during the next years. According to the market research company Frost & Sullivan, the total biochip market which includes microarrays, microfluids and other biochips, is expected to increase from about US$272 million to US$3.3 billion in 2006. more
ND-Issue: 4/2002
- How does it all fit together? Although technologies for discovering new targets have been significantly improved in recent years, the costs for research and development have risen sky-high in relation to the number of drugs actually approved. more
ND-Issue: 3/2002
- Having successfully cracked the code behind the human genome, scientists now face a far greater task. Only when scientists can exactly determine which gene generates which protein, and how this functions, can convincing statements be made on the cause and treatment of illnesses such as Alzheimer, Parkinson and cancer. more
ND-Issue: 2/2002
- "If you stop getting better, you’ve already stopped being good!” NewDrugs has taken this motto to heart and looked for ways to improve. The result is an optimized concept for an even more attractive and faster presentation of worthwhile topics from pharmaceutical research plus interesting information from the industry. more
