AstraZeneca - Articles and news items

European Commission Issues Positive Decision for Approval of Seroquel XR as an Add-On Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

Industry news, News / 2 September 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca today announced that the European Commission (EC) has issued a positive decision for the approval of once-daily SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) Extended Release Tablets as an add-on treatment of major depressive episodes in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) who have had sub-optimal response to antidepressant monotherapy.

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Applying systems biology and computer simulations to predicting idiosyncratic DILI

Issue 4 2010 / 19 August 2010 / David Cook, Associate Director, Global Safety Assessment, AstraZeneca

Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a rare adverse drug reaction which accounts for a significant amount of patient suffering, including death. Currently, idiosyncratic DILI is unpredictable and as a result arises late in the drug development process or even post-marketing. The prediction of idiosyncratic DILI based on preclinical or early clinical data is a formidable challenge and this short review will discuss why and how new initiatives in systems biology and dynamic computational simulations can meet this challenge and predict the ‘unpredictable’. (more…)

AstraZeneca Announces Agreements in Principle in Seroquel Product Liability Litigation

Industry news, News / 9 August 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca announced today that, as of 9 August, it had reached agreements in principle on monetary terms with attorneys representing approximately 17,500 SEROQUEL product liability claimants in the United States for approximately $198 million. The agreements in principle are subject to agreement on non-monetary terms.

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AstraZeneca PLC appoints new Non-Executive Director

Industry news, News / 29 July 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca today announced that Dr Bruce Burlington is to join the Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director, with effect from 1 August 2010. Dr Burlington will also become a member of the Board’s Science Committee.

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Advisory Committee Briefing Materials For Brilinta (Ticagrelor) NDA Available On US FDA Web Site

Industry news, News / 26 July 2010 / AstraZeneca

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today posted briefing materials in advance of 28th July 2010 Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee (CRDAC) to discuss the New Drug Application (NDA) filed by  for its investigational oral antiplatelet ticagrelor. The proposed trade name for ticagrelor in the US is BRILINTA, pending approval from the FDA.

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Pharma ‘HTS’ the Mark with Screening

Industry news, News / 21 July 2010 / NG Online News

Back in May, it was announced that new stem cell research would reduce the need for animal testing. Now, we are really beginning to see the benefits of groundbreaking science that is not reliant on out dated methods of testing. The proposal was that by reprogramming powerful stem cells from adult tissue, we could look towards a future without animal testing.

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AstraZeneca and MRC Technology Form Strategic Alliance in Discovery Research, Utilising Shared Compound Libraries

Industry news, News / 5 July 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca and MRC Technology, the commercialisation company for the UK’s Medical Research Council, today announced a new strategic collaboration to share access to their collections of compounds to aid the search for potential new treatments for serious diseases.

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Outsource to Europe

Industry news, News / 2 July 2010 / NG Online News

The pharmaceutical industry has faced well documented challenges over the last 12 months, such as the Pfizer. The industry is only too aware of this and understands that now is the time to look at new processes and a change in the way they have traditionally done business.

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BGMA welcomes EU General Court ruling that AstraZeneca abused its dominant position by preventing the marketing of generic omeprazole

Industry news, News / 1 July 2010 / College Hill on behalf of BGMA

Commenting on the EU General Court’s ruling that AstraZeneca had acted anti-competitively to prevent or delay the launch of generic omeprazole, BGMA Director Warwick Smith said:

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CRESTOR Patent Upheld By US Court

Industry news, News / 30 June 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca announced today that Judge Joseph Farnan, Jr., US District Court, District of Delaware, has found that the substance patent protecting CRESTOR (RE37,314 – the ‘314 patent) is valid and enforceable. In its ruling, the court found that no inequitable conduct was committed by any Shionogi employee. The court also held the ‘314 patent to be non-obvious and properly reissued.

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AstraZeneca and MMV Join Efforts in the Fight Against Malaria

Industry news, News / 28 June 2010 / AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) today announced a collaborative agreement designed to identify novel candidate drugs for the treatment of malaria. The agreement will initially allow MMV access to AstraZeneca’s extensive compound library. MMV will seek to identify promising compounds with the potential to treat malaria, including drug resistant strains of the disease. AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan announced the collaboration at the Fortune/TIME/CNN Global Forum in Cape Town, South Africa.

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High content cell based primary screening for oncology targets – a perspective

Issue 3 2010, Past issues / 25 June 2010 / Peter Alcock, Colin Bath, Carolyn Blackett & Peter B. Simpson, Screening & Assay Sciences, Cancer Bioscience, AstraZeneca Alderley Park

Over the last 15 years, vendors have offered microscope-based instruments capable of producing images of fluorescent labelled components of cells grown in microtitre plates. These instruments are typically bundled with analysis software capable of defining the relative distribution of several fluorescent markers on a cell by cell basis1,2. As the readers have improved and image acquisition and analysis times have reduced, the potential for screening larger compound libraries has presented itself. High Content Screening (HCS) i.e. the generation of multiparameter data from a single well, has thus become an important tool in the High-Throughput Screening (HTS) laboratory. (more…)