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 »

Pharmaceutical Technology magazine presents part two of its vidcast program, recorded at INTERPHEX 2009. Click the links below to watch the vidcasts. (Click here to see day one of the vidcast program.) Read more »

Pharmaceutical Technology magazine presents part one of its vidcast program. Today’s edition brings updates from the show floor of INTERPHEX 2009. Click the links below to watch the vidcasts. Read more »

In the 2008 PharmTech Employment Survey, participants cited “regulations” over and over again as one of the hardest aspects to deal with in their jobs. Well, I’m sorry to report that there may be a new series of regulations forthcoming tied to combination products. Read more »

It’s no secret that industry pipelines are thin at the moment. But what about innovations in pharmaceutical science? Are companies keeping up with the times to develop new ways of testing, delivering, formulating, analyzing, or manufacturing drugs? Pharmaceutical Technology would like to hear from you. In fact, we launched a call for nominations for the 2008 Innovations in Pharma Science Awards earlier this summer. The awards will honor achievements in the pharmaceutical sciences, specifically in these five areas:

1) Drug delivery (solid dosage and parenteral forms)
2) Formulation development (solid dosage and parenteral forms)
3) Dosage-form manufacturing (solid dosage and parenteral forms)
4) Pharmaceutical analysis
5) API synthesis and manufacturing (small molecules and biologics).

But the deadline for nominations is here. Check out this link to nominate your company’s work in one of five areas by next week. The winners will be announced in the December issue.

Last week, the staff at Pharmatek Laboratories (San Diego, CA) graciously hosted an event for media and small-pharma representatives that provided a rare tour inside its new high-potent, cytotoxic (HP/C) facility. The 16,000-square-foot addition to their existing lab space was to be triple-cleaned and then forever-closed to visitors the following day. It was a chance to see state-of-the-art in containment technology and facility design up close. Read more »