GalleryThe development of oral anticoagulants
Nature have released a short (5 min approx.) video on the development of oral anticoagulants. It is beautifully produced and informative.
Printing Digital Drugs
The Guardian reports on 3D printing drugs. The FDA (US Food & Drug Administration) has approved the printing of a pill containing a new drug, Spritam levetiracetam, (to control epileptic seizures). There are a number of universities across the world working on applying this technology to drugs, hoping to make it safer and more tailored to individual patients.
Full article […]
On innovation, policies, economic returns – the cases of antibiotics , new and transformative drugs
In the current issue of Health Affairs :
February 2015; Volume 34, Issue 2 Biomedical Innovation
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/2.toc
Outterson, K., J. H. Powers, G. W. Daniel and M. B. McClellan (2015). “Repairing The Broken Market For Antibiotic Innovation.” Health Affairs 34(2): 277-285. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/2/277.abstract
“…Good public health practices curb inappropriate antibiotic use, making return on investment challenging in payment systems based on sales volume. We […]
On DNA big data for drug discovery
A Featured Story on The MIT Technology Review, by Antonio Regalado (November 19, 2014) about how drug companies are using “giant database of human DNA information” for drug discovery.
Entitled The Search for Exceptional Genomes, this story provides an example of how Big Data can be used by drug manufacturers to explore new drugs.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/532421/the-search-for-exceptional-genomes/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141119
…“This is going to be […]
“RNA prescriptions” and “Science has just changed”
A Featured Story from MIT Technology Review, by Ken Garber. Not news really, it was published on December 1, 2002.
Of interest especially the heralding of how Science has just changed:
when it was found in 2001 that “tiny double-stranded RNA fragments quickly, easily, and specifically turned off genes in human cells, a role researchers had never before seen […]
Big pharma and smart devices
An article on the Financial Times, commenting on Google links with Novartis, to develop a “smart” contact lens designed to help diabetics track their blood sugar levels.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9738eec8-0c0e-11e4-9080-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3L2n2ppuU
It also mentions the “electroceuticals” – “implants that use electronic impulses to affect and modify the functions of the body”
Europe Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is Europe’s largest public-private partnership aiming to improve the drug development process by supporting a more efficient discovery and development of better and safer medicines for patients. The legislation establishing IMI 2 was approved by the EU Member States on 6 May 2014. IMI 2 will be launched later in 2014 and will run […]
Creating a new ecosystem for drug discovery
An article from Pharma Times, by Claire Bowie, on intellectual property and Pharma-University collaboration
Creating a new ecosystem for drug discovery
Pharma Times FEBRUARY 24, 2014