The winners of this year’s RFID Journal Awards were announced at the annual RFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition earlier this week. The winner for Best in Show was ODIN Technologies for its self-inventorying SMART Container, a system that monitors items within a shipping container and then transmits that information to any ERP system via satellite, cellular and active RFID. Read more »

Merck & Co has joined forces with global health services company CIGNA in a first for the pharma/health insurance industry. Read more »

The almost overnight public concern and media attention over the swine flu outbreak has again turned the attention to pandemic preparedness. Officials continue to encourage preventive actions and precautions, noting that, as of yet, it is still unknown whether current vaccines and antivirals will have any effect against the strain responsible for this outbreak. It is also unknown whether those who received a vaccination during the 1976 US swine flu outbreak will have some protection against the current strain. Read more »

Speakers’ comments at the Parenteral Drug Association’s Annual Meeting, held in Las Vegas on Apr. 20-24, 2009, reflected the crisis that pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries face. Presenters alluded to a cloud of challenges (e.g., cost pressures, products that can be duplicated by competitors, and quality-control failures) that has been gathering for some time. Several speakers claimed that small- and large-molecule manufacturers must change now to survive in the short and long terms. But change how? Read more »

As the annual RFID Journal Live! event approaches, companies are eager to share the news that they have been nominated for one of the show’s awards. The award for the Most Innovative Use of RFID could go to WaveTrend Technologies, not for its solution for the aerospace, consumer goods, or pharmaceutical industry, but for its work with RFID in reality TV. Read more »

Relationship building and the benefit of deepening collaborative business models between excipient manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies in support of formulation development and manufacturing in a quality-by-design (QbD) paradigm and enhancing supply-chain practices was a key takeaway from ExcipientFest Americas, which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this week. ExcipientFest Americas is operated by the Drug, Chemical and Associated Technologies Association (DCAT). ExcipientFest Americas is an exhibition and educational program that addresses technical considerations in excipient selection and formulation development as well as sourcing and supply-chain issues for excipients. Read more »

Mosquitos are on my mind today. Not only am I looking to find a good mosquito trap machine for my backyard before the summer season begins, but I learned that this Saturday, Apr. 25, is World Malaria Day. As most people know, malaria is a deadly mosquito-born disease. According to Roll Back Malaria (RBM), a United Nations initiative, a child dies from malaria every 30 seconds. The disease takes nearly 1 million lives every year and affects nearly 1 billion people in 109 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Read more »

Like everything else, drug products sometimes end up as waste. Lately I’ve tried to reduce the amount of waste I generate and dispose of it carefully. I’ve written before about how flushing unused drugs down the toilet, which was previously recommended, can harm the environment. But what’s the alternative? Read more »

Last week, I wrote about how FDA seems to have taken a more strict approach to enforcement. But now I’m wondering if the agency is making decisions too quickly in response to pressure from the public and Congress. Read more »

Prospects for new heart-disease therapies looked grim last fall, when one of the world’s top drug companies, Pfizer, announced it would drop out of the arena of cardiovascular disease research. The news prompted an opinion letter published in last month’s New England Journal of Medicine regarding the “uncertain future of cardiovascular drug development.” This past week, however, Merck announced it would strengthen its efforts toward new heart-disease therapies through a license agreement with drug developer Cardiome Pharma Corp. of Vancouver, Canada. Read more »