Reading the wires every day reinforces my impression that biological drugs are an evolving field that may soon become a major segment of the pharmaceutical industry. But a new report from Research and Markets reminded me that a form of gene therapy also promises interesting discoveries and potential cures. Read more »
It has long been predicted that breakthroughs in genomics will foster an entirely new generation of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical therapies. Now, five and a half years after the Human Genome Project published the full sequence human genome, the first population-wide study to gather human genetic data is set to begin. Read more »
I’m not an astrologist, but sometimes you have to wonder whether plans were hatched under a bad sign. It certainly seems that way for “Vytorin,” a cholesterol-lowering drug that combines simvastatin and “Zetia.” The drug, introduced by Merck and Schering-Plough, has suffered damaging revelations. Read more »
Seven months after Pfizer (New York) pulled “Exubera” from the market, the star-crossed product’s saga continues. Pfizer apparently plans to close its Terre Haute, Indiana, manufacturing facility, which had gotten a cash infusion to prepare it to produce—you guessed it—Exubera. The company insists that the plant closure is unrelated to Exubera’s failure, but I find that hard to believe.
Is this plant closure the final nail in the coffin of inhaled insulin?
People always giggle when I say that, but it’s true. Of all the “basic” sciences, biology is the most slippery. By that I mean that, while the tendency is to study biomolecules and cells in isolation, the total animal, be it a bacterium or a human being, is a federation of molecules, organelles, or organs (depending on how big and multicellular you are), and they all act together to create a phenotype, a behavior, a syndrome, or a disease in the intact organism.
So it should hardly be a surprise to anyone who recognizes this fact that drugs for complex conditions, developed with reductionist biological models, yield disappointing results in the clinic. And yet it is. Read more »
From PharmTech.com