There has been a surge in the number of combination product (i.e. where a drug product is combined with a medical device) launches in recent years and this trend is set to continue as more companies seek to extend the life of existing branded medicines. According to analysts, the combination product market is currently worth 8 billion Euros and will grow by a staggering 40% during the next 3 years. Read more »
Parallel trade in the EU: there are arguments for it and arguments against it, but the latest reports from the UK suggest that the trade is having a significantly negative impact on patients and the supply of medicines. Read more »
Handling the vast amount of data that can be generated from scientific research, including pharmaceutical research such as genome sequencing, can be a formidable task. Researchers may not be able to efficiently manage this task through the use of personal computers (PCs) alone, nor do they have access to supercomputers or other advanced information-technology (IT) systems. The emerging model of cloud computing, an advance in computational computing, seeks to address researchers’ difficulties by creating a community resource of computational and processing power accessible on demand through PCs. Last week Microsoft and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a partnership to increase access to cloud computing for NSF-supported researchers.
Pharmaceutical supply-chain managers have yet another item to step up their control of: tractor-trailers. A critical part of the delivery of supply, these large trucks have been used by many pharmaceutical companies for years to transport raw materials, ingredients, and final drug products. Cargo theft has always been a concern, but that concern is now growing. Read more »
I have just returned from an event in France which, I have to say, really impressed me. Not because I had the perfect excuse to visit Paris for a couple of days (although that was undoubtedly a bonus), but because I was so impressed by the calibre of presentations and new innovations that were showcased from this relatively small meeting. Read more »
The announcement by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation late last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the foundation will commit $10 billion during the next 10 years to help research, develop, and deliver vaccines in poor and developing countries is an important pledge for global public health, a commitment that the foundation is also hoping that governments and the private sector will participate in as well. Read more »
These days, research scientists, much like Rodney Dangerfield, can’t get any respect. The latest evidence of this arrived on Friday, when AstraZeneca (London) proposed to cut 3500 research and development (R&D) jobs by 2014. Read more »
The economic recession—recovering or not—was bound to affect FDA at some point. In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a spending freeze for US government agencies and programs that are not tied to national security. Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare also would not be affected. “Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don’t,” said the President in his speech. Read more »
Hands up those of you who read the labels on your medication bottles ‘every’ time you’re due to administer a dose? Not many of you I bet. While much publicity highlights the dangers of counterfeit drugs (and rightly so), what about the dangers linked to incorrectly taking genuine medication? Read more »
Only a day after the results of two Phase III clinical trials involving Novartis’s oral therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) were published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the media has leapt on the positive trial data and hailed the therapy as “hope for MS patients” that can “dramatically reduce relapse”. That’s great news, but hold on… the therapy hasn’t even been approved yet! Read more »
From PharmTech.com