Formulation and Drug Delivery

Lipid-based drug delivery systems - such as liposomes, micro-and nanoemulsions, self-emulsified drug delivery systems, and solid lipid micro-and nanoparticles - are becoming more popular because lipid materials are easily characterized, contain a high range of well-defined/tolerated surfactant molecules and can be developed for several administration routes.

Company and People Notes: ISP to raise prices, Patheon appoints CEO, more.

Sanofi-aventis entered into an agreement with Chinese authorities allowing Sanofi to construct a vaccine-manufacturing plant in Shenzhen municipality.

Company and People Notes: Cambridge Major Labs acquires ChemShop; Helix BioPharma restructures senior positions, more.

Company and People Notes: BASF raises prices on excipients; Verus Pharmaceuticals appoints president and CEO; more.

A company has raised ?700000 to assist in the development of treatments for antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Pfizer's Lipitor patent revoked in Germany, promotions at Charles River Labs, more.

King Pharmaceuticals, and Acura Pharmaceuticals have entered into a license, development and commercialization agreement for the United States, Canada, and Mexico, encompassing a potentially wide range of opioid analgesic products utilizing Acura?s patented Aversion (abuse-deterrent) Technology platform.

Editors' Picks of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology Innovations

Market demand for cytotoxic drugs is leading CMOs to expand their API manufacturing and formulation services.

Natural gums and mucilage have been widely explored as pharmaceutical excipients. The goal of this study was to extract mucilage from the leaves of Aloe barbadensis Miller and to study its functionality as an excipient in pharmaceutical sustained-release tablet formulations.

A book illustrates the potential for nanoparticulate drug delivery, and how much about them remains to be understood.

Vaccines are needed against old and new infectious disease threats - polio and other childhood illnesses, bioterrorism and pandemic flu. They are also emerging for cancer immunotherapy and for treating addiction. While vaccines are among some of the most successful biotech products, their large-scale manufacture involves some special demands, such as maintaining a good working cell bank and gearing up for production on an 'as needed' basis.

The crystalline structure of pharmaceutical solids can sometimes be altered during processing. X-ray powder diffraction and near infrared spectroscopy can be used to determine the amorphous and crystalline content of a model substance. The two techniques' precision, accuracy, detection limit and the speed of analysis are compared.

Company Notes: Gibraltar expands facilities; Allozyne appoints new president and CEO, more.

The pharmaceutical market is undergoing a major transformation with companies moving more and more toward the generics business, according to a new report.

Company and People Notes: ImClone, BMS, and Merck form agreement; CRI Worldwide names new CEO, more.

Company and People Notes: Orexo acquires Biolipox, Avalon cofounder resigns, more...

Pfizer decided to stop investing in ?Exubera? (inhaled insulin), a product that had been considered a potential blockbuster drug.

An exclusive licence agreement has been signed to develop a new oral treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a condition that affects approximately 165 million people.

Company and People Notes: Novartis and MIT to study continuous processing, GSK appoints Andrew Witty as CEO, more.

The US Food and Drug Administration launched a new program to increase the number and variety of generic drugs available to the public, beginning in FY2008.

Company and People Notes: Thermo Fisher Scientific buys Priority Solutions International, Wyeth elects new president and CEO, more.

Transdermal delivery takes up once-forbidden compounds, reviving markets and creating formulation opportunities.