Drug Discovery News and Research

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The drug discovery process begins with recognizing a disease or clinical condition in which there is a lack of adequate medical treatment. Once a potential drug has been identified, pre-clinical research can begin. This process includes several stages; the first of which involves identifying and validating the prospective drug’s target through assay development, high throughput screening, hit identification and finally, lead optimization. Once the pre-clinical process is complete, the newly synthesized drug candidate is selected for future clinical development.

EMD Serono's TocopheRx to focus on development of oral FSH agonists for infertility treatment

EMD Serono, Inc., a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today the creation of TocopheRx, a Boston-based spin-off company resulting from the Entrepreneur Partnership Program launched by Merck Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in April 2012.

3 Dec 2013

Scientists identify new approach to fight malaria parasites

Using advanced methodologies that pit drug compounds against specific types of malaria parasite cells, an international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, have identified a potential new weapon and approach for attacking the parasites that cause malaria.

28 Nov 2013

Findings highlight possible new approach to combat malaria

An international team of scientists, including researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, has identified a key metabolic enzyme that common malaria parasites require for survival at each stage of infection in humans. The findings raise the possibility of a new approach to combating malaria, one of the world's deadliest diseases. The study was published today in the online edition of the journal Nature.

27 Nov 2013

Isis Pharmaceuticals commences Phase 1 study of ISIS-GSK3Rx for treatment of common viral infection

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has initiated a Phase 1 study for ISIS-GSK3Rx and earned a $3 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline.

27 Nov 2013

Researchers develop new microsystem for testing drugs to treat epilepsy, MG and cystic fibrosis

Researchers from the University of Southampton, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Quebec at Montreal, have developed a new microsystem for more efficient testing of pharmaceutical drugs to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, MG (myasthenia gravis) and epilepsy.

26 Nov 2013

SIMM and Crown Bioscience collaborate to build MCT center in China

Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Crown Bioscience, Inc., announced today that they have reached an agreement to form a strategic collaboration focused on translational oncology and to join forces to build a mouse clinical trial (MCT) center at Crown Taicang campus, Taicang, Jiangsu province, China --SIMM-Crown Mouse Clinical Trial Center, or SCMC.

26 Nov 2013

CHMP recommends approval of Otsuka's Deltyba for pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has recommended approval of Deltyba (delamanid) in combination with a WHO recommended optimized background regimen for the treatment of pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The CHMP opinion will help form the basis for a European Commission decision expected early next year.

25 Nov 2013

Using radiation models to improve cancer therapies: an interview with Adrian Treverton, COO of Xstrahl and Jean-Pierre Wery, President of Crown Bioscience

What we are trying to do is take a cancer model like the PDX model (patient-derived tumor xenograft), which is a human-derived cancer growing in an in vivo model and apply radiation to that model.

From Xstrahl 20 Nov 2013

Scientists at Salk Institute develop novel platform to study kidney diseases

Diseases affecting the kidneys represent a major and unsolved health issue worldwide. The kidneys rarely recover function once they are damaged by disease, highlighting the urgent need for better knowledge of kidney development and physiology.

19 Nov 2013

Researchers generate three-dimensional kidney structures from human stem cells

18 Nov 2013

Acquired resistance to cancer therapies: an interview with Dr Rajendra Kumari, Chief Scientific Officer at PRECOS

Cancer can be treated by a number of different ways depending on the location, grade and stage of tumour. A patient's age, medical history and lifestyle will also be taken into consideration and a combination of treatments will also be adopted to provide maximum effect.

14 Nov 2013

BioInvent International receives US patent for drug discovery technology F.I.R.S.T.

BioInvent International AB today announces that it has been granted a US patent for its antibody and concomitant target discovery technology F.I.R.S.T.

11 Nov 2013

Findings demonstrate potential new therapeutic approach to treat fibrotic diseases

A team of scientists that includes Saint Louis University researchers has identified a new way to intervene in the molecular and cellular cascade that causes fibrosis - a condition where the body's natural process of forming scars for wound healing goes into overdrive and causes diseases.

11 Nov 2013

GHIT Fund makes new investments in potential treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas disease

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a new public health partnership that is bringing Japanese know-how and investment to the global fight against infectious diseases, announced today grants of US$5.7 million to six global partnerships working on innovative drugs and vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas disease.

8 Nov 2013

GHIT Fund grants US$5.7 million to six global partnerships working on vaccines against malaria

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), a new public health partnership that is bringing Japanese know-how and investment to the global fight against infectious diseases, announced today grants of US$5.7 million to six global partnerships working on innovative drugs and vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas disease.

8 Nov 2013

Researchers on the way to find cure against African sleeping sickness

Researchers at Umeå University have identified drugs targeting infections of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei and are thereby well on the way to find a cure against African sleeping sickness. This is the kernel of a thesis, which will be publicly defended on 8 November 2013.

6 Nov 2013

JDRF partners with Pfizer's CTI to support diabetes research

JDRF, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes research, announced today a partnership with Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation to support the development and translation of promising diabetes research.

4 Nov 2013

Oncology drug development services: an interview with Dr. Jean-Pierre Wery, President of Crown Bioscience, Inc.

Crown serves pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies. We have two areas of focus: oncology and metabolic diseases. In the oncology space we focus on pre-clinical services. Essentially, we have all the tools to help our customers move from target discovery, target validation, to a clinical candidate.

31 Oct 2013

Cellectricon to demonstrate Cellaxess technology at Neuroscience 2013

Cellectricon, a leading provider of advanced cell-based screening technologies and services, will be presenting new data at Neuroscience 2013, 9-13 November, San Diego (USA).

From Cellectricon 31 Oct 2013

STSI receives $29M grant to support innovative research on genomics, wireless technology and bioinformatics

The National Institutes of Health has renewed its prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) with the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) in the amount of $29 million over the next five years to support innovative research in genomics, wireless technology and bioinformatics toward individualizing medicine.

23 Oct 2013