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3 December 2008 | By
Neurotoxicology is not a discipline that can expect to be popular in pharmaceutical circles. It is a not unreasonable prejudice amongst people working in drug development that even a suggestion that a candidate drug might be neurotoxic is enough to halt development, or at the least to stimulate a highly…
3 December 2008 | By Jakob Beirowski, Pharmacist and Dr. Henning Gieseler, Assistant Professor, Division of Pharmaceutics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Freeze drying of pharmaceuticals requires an adequate formulation design to prevent low-temperature, freezing and drying stresses. The goal is to achieve a final product with long storage stability and elegant appearance. To meet these specifications the product temperature must be controlled below the critical formulation temperature during the freeze drying…
3 December 2008 | By
The design, validation and implementation of a documented and approved disinfectant programme must form a key part of any pharmaceutical production area qualification. There is significant regulatory interest in this area as it forms a fundamental part of any production facility maintenance schedule. European pharmaceutical companies are required to implement…
3 December 2008 | By
During stability, product testing is performed to ensure the product will continue to meet specified criteria of quality and strength through its expiration or shelf-life at the temperature and humidity required by specific markets. This article will not address the other stability requirement of continued efficacy during consumer use which…
3 December 2008 | By
Pharma-Chem and bio-pharma development and production are now being profoundly influenced by the FDA PAT1 initiative with spectroscopic instrumentation being increasingly applied, or at the very least explored in product and process development and for on-line real-time process applications. The issues related to robust spectroscopic data analysis and calibration modelling…
3 December 2008 | By
This premier event is being held January 25-28 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, located within Baltimore's Inner Harbour. IFPAC is the leading conference in process analysis and technology and this will be the 23rd International Forum for Process Analytical Technology.
29 September 2008 | By Russell Grocock, Principle Bioinformatics Scientist, GSK
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (~21nucleotides), evolutionarily conserved, noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression1. In mammalian genomes, conservative predictions suggest that between 500-1500 miRNAs exist. There miRNAs appear to be capable of regulating the expression of multiple genes, with many genes appearing to be regulated by multiple, different, miRNAs2. Less…
29 September 2008 | By
The polymerase chain reaction is arguably the most significant technical discovery yet to have been made in the field of molecular biology and genetics, if not all life science. It cannot be overstated how much of an impact this technique has had, resulting in molecular biology becoming an integral part…
29 September 2008 | By
On 3-4 November GeneExpression Systems, Inc., USA and the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom jointly present the Third International MicroRNA Europe 2008 Meeting on MicroRNAs: Biology to Development and Disease. 30 speakers will present the latest developments in the microRNA field. 20 poster presentations and 20 exhibit booths will also…
29 September 2008 | By
Advances in proteomics have constantly altered our understanding of cell biology and biochemistry by providing new approaches and techniques to identify complex proteomes, protein-protein interactions and post-translational modifications. Additionally, proteomic approaches are believed to have enormous potential for discovery of disease biomarkers that can provide diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets…
29 September 2008 | By
European Pharmaceutical Review invited three individuals to discuss current ideas and issues surrounding biomarkers and their possibilities.
An issue that the drug discovery industry has faced over the past several years has been that whilst the number of targets in their portfolios has increased and the level of investment across all Research & Development functions has risen, the likelihood of discovering suitable chemical starting points for medicinal…
29 September 2008 | By
This year's Leading European Event for Drug Discovery – MipTec 2008 – moves from spring to autumn and will be held on the 14-16 October 2008 at the Congress Centre Basel, Switzerland.
29 September 2008 | By
Traditional drug discovery screening assays tend to employ simplistic endpoint assays that often monitor the activity of a single target. While these approaches are amenable to high-throughput screening they provide limited information on how candidate drugs influence complex biological systems that exist in vivo. Such limitations are a contributing factor…
29 September 2008 | By
The pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads: Research and Development costs continue to rise, whilst the pipeline of ‘blockbuster’ drugs is looking decidedly sparse for many of the major pharmaceutical companies. This state of affairs is compounded by the high attrition rates (>80%) of drug candidates, when they get to…
