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ARIAD
Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co. recently
announced their $1-billion collaboration to develop
and commercialize AP23573, ARIAD's novel mTOR
inhibitor, for use in cancer. We talked to Timothy
P. Clackson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief
Scientific Officer at ARIAD, who explained why mTOR
is such an important target. Clackson also described
what the alliance with Merck signifies for the
future of AP23573 and for ARIAD in general.
ARIAD
Lifted on $1B Anticancer Deal with Merck & Co.
By Laurie Sullivan, July 23, 2007
Teresa
J. Thuruthiyil, Vice President of Investor and
Public Relations for Symyx Technologies Inc., talked
to PharmaWeek about their recently introduced
product for optimizing drug development—Symyx’s
Benchtop System.
Executive
Spotlight
Symyx Technologies & Pharmaceutical R&D: A Synergistic Combo
By Laurie Sullivan, June
28, 2007
Mark
R. Ashton, Evotec's Executive Vice President of
Business Development, describes the company's
strategy to provide innovative technology for drug
discovery and development. Dr. Ashton talked to PharmaWeek
about Evotec's newly established Innovation Centre
for Fragment-Based Drug Discovery, its proprietary
programs, and the capabilities it brings to
companies seeking an outsourcing or collaborative
research partner.
Executive
Spotlight: Evotec Whets Its Edge
By Laurie Sullivan, June 20, 2007
The
human genome sequencing begets a logical question:
How are our genetic instructions decoded by cells
into biological functions? This week Nature
published results from a project to identify and
analyze functional elements taken from 1% of the
human genome. The findings suggest our genetic
blueprint is not a simple one, but a complex network
in which genes, along with regulatory elements and
other types of DNA sequences that do not code for
proteins, interact in overlapping ways.
DNA
101: Exploiting the Instruction Manual
By Laurie Sullivan, June 14, 2007
John
P. Danner, president and CEO of Codon Devices, Inc., describes
his company's work in an interview. "Codon
Devices is focused on enabling commercial
applications of synthetic biology. Our proprietary
synthesis and design technologies are contributing
to a paradigm shift that we call Constructive
Biology, which we really view as the next major wave
of innovation in biotechnology," says Danner.
CEO
Spotlight: Codon Devices’ John P. Danner on
Constructive Biology™
By Laurie Sullivan, May 24, 2007
Novel
approaches to conducting biochemical, functional,
and ADME-tox assays in high-throughput formats are
generating lead compounds that come with a
substantial “resume” profiling their activity,
specificity, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic
characteristics.
Functional
Assays Take HTS in New Directions
By Vicki Glaser, March 22, 2007
Current
approaches to structure-based design are better than
traditional methods because there is a lot more
information available--better physicochemical and
pathway information and a broader range of assay and
biological data--to guide small-molecule design
strategies.
Breathing
New Life into Structure-Based Design
By Vicki Glaser, March 15, 2007
HPLC's
applications in drug discovery range from analytical
to preparative, from early stage research through
product manufacturing. New chromatographic
systems offering higher pressures, longer columns,
and small-particle media that enable improved speed
and enhanced resolution are further expanding HPLC's
uses.
Advancing
High-Throughput HPLC
By Vicki Glaser, March 7, 2007
As
the field of anti-aging research has matured,
scientists and companies have ceased to look for a
Ponce de Leon-type fountain of youth, turning
instead to treatments for age-related diseases. What
they found may be an unending fountain of cash.
Anti-Aging
Targets Tap Biggest Markets
By Rabiya S. Tuma, Ph.D., March 1, 2007
An
astounding 90% of hits identified in drug screening
will fail during lead optimization, according to
Herman Verheij, head of the computational chemistry
team at Pyxis Discovery. What can be done to
improve the quality and potential of the drug
candidates emerging from high-throughput
screening campaigns?
When
Smaller is Better: Fragment libraries are in vogue
in med chem.
By Vicki Glaser, February 22, 2007
Microwave-based
chemical synthesis for small-molecule drug discovery
offers several advantages. Medicinal chemists are
finding they can use microwave energy to catalyze a
broad range of chemistries. By putting a moderate
amount of energy into a reaction to drive chemical
transformations, they can achieve higher yields and
greater purity, and realize significant improvements
in efficiency and productivity.
Microwave-Driven
Compound Synthesis: Turning Up the Heat on Med Chem
By Vicki
Glaser, February 14, 2007
The
market opportunity is untapped, and the time is now.
The race is on for a treatment that can modify
Alzheimer’s disease. The number of Americans with
Alzheimer’s could grow to as many as 16 million by
2050. We examine some of the efforts that are
underway to develop new treatments for Alzheimer’s
disease. The product candidates in late-stage
clinical development reveal that companies are
pursuing a wide range of approaches and targets in
this endeavor.
Companies
Sprint toward Alzheimer’s Disease–Modifying Drug
By Lucy Sannes, Ph.D., Sannes & Associates,
December 7, 2006
The
therapeutic and commercial potentials for using
potent immunomodulatory agents to boost or suppress
autoimmune responses continue to grow enormously. Immunomodulators
that target tumor necrosis factor
(TNF)-alpha alone had combined worldwide sales of over
$8.5 billion
in 2005, demonstrating the large market potential for this
class of agents.
Breakthrough
Immune Modulator Targets Have Blockbuster Potential
By Lucy Sannes, Ph.D., Sannes & Associates,
November 30, 2006
Vicki Glaser, Contributing Editor to Pharma DD,
contributed to this article.
Monoclonal
antibody–based therapies have proven to be major
clinical and marketing successes. Six of the
antibodies on the market in the U.S. today have
already reached blockbuster status, with sales
exceeding $1 billion each. Antibodies currently on
the market in the U.S. had combined global sales greater than $13 billion
in 2005.
Monoclonal
Antibodies: From Magic Bullets to Successful Drugs
By Lucy Sannes, Ph.D., Sannes & Associates,
November 16, 2006
Vicki Glaser, Contributing Editor to Pharma DD,
contributed to this article.
C-reactive
protein (CRP) has attracted considerable attention as
a biomarker for cardiovascular disease risk. In
addition, interest in CRP as a potential drug target
continues to grow. If clinical data ultimately
demonstrate that CRP is a reliable biomarker for
cardiovascular disease and is a useful therapeutic
target, novel drugs developed to modulate CRP levels
and activity have the potential to be blockbuster
drugs with annual sales of multiple
billions of dollars.
C-Reactive
Protein--Cardiac Risk Marker and Potential Drug
Target
By Lucy Sannes, Ph.D., Sannes & Associates,
November 9, 2006
Vicki Glaser, Contributing Editor to Pharma DD,
contributed to this article.
More
Strategic Briefings
Evista:
Clinical Trial Results Question Its Safety and
Efficacy
Sucampo
Leverages Prostones Expertise, Files IPO
Recent
Clinical Developments in Type 2 Diabetes
Novartis'
Alex Gaither on How New Tools are Redefining
Chemogenomics
Emerging
HIV Therapies: Part 2 of 2
Emerging
HIV Therapies: Part 1 of 2
HIV/AIDS
Vaccines Pose Economic, Demographic, and Scientific
Challenges
Safety
Issues Hamper Dual PPAR Agonists: Is Partial
Antagonism the Solution?
Alzheimer's Early Detection Strategies--From Skin to
Sniff Tests and Beyond
Renin
Inhibitors Show Promise for Treating Hypertension
What’s
Next for Stem Cell Companies?
Finding
the Magic in Fixed Combinations
Companies Race to Expand HCV Market Using Bold Approaches
Novartis Plunges into Hepatitis C Market
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