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The November-December Issue



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Online Exclusives
Meetings & Events





Breaking News:

Forest Labs To Acquire Cerexa
Forest Laboratories, Inc. has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Cerexa, Inc. for $480 million cash. As part of the... » Read More

Directed Molecular Evolution: Product lifecycle management for biologics

Biologics are forecast to be the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical market out to 2010. Use this report to identify the key holders of DME technology, how to gain access to this powerful method and which techniques are best suited to which biomolecule types.

For more information on this report or to purchase it, click here


HollisterStier, GeneraMedix Enter Manufacturing Pact
HollisterStier Contract Manufacturing has signed a manufacturing contract with GeneraMedix, Inc. to develop a process... » Read More



Abbott Acquires Kos Pharmaceuticals
Abbott has acquired a majority of the shares of Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for $3.7 billion. The acquisition follows a schedule... » Read More



Holmes Biopharma to Acquire Drug Development Lab
Holmes Biopharma, Inc. has signed a letter of intent to purchase an existing pharmaceutical development, clinical manufacture, biotechnology, and analytical laboratory business located in the eastern U.S.... » Read More



Boehringer Expands Graffinity Drug Pact
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has chosen to exercise options in its original agreement with Graffinity Pharmaceuticals that will increase the number of targets screened by Graffinity as part of this global alliance.... » Read More



BASF Selects Mutchler as U.S. Distributor
BASF Corp. has selected Mutchler, Inc. to serve as an authorized distributor of pharmaceutical excipients in the U.S.... » Read More



GSK, EPIX Pharma Enter Discovery Pact
GlaxoSmithKline and EPIX Pharmaceuticals have entered a worldwide multi-target strategic collaboration to discover, develop and market medicines targeting four G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including EPIX’s novel 5-HT4 partial agonist program, PRX-03140, in early-stage clinical development for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.... » Read More



Indevus To Acquire Valera
Indevus Pharmaceuticals and Valera Pharmaceuticals have entered into a definitive agreement under which Indevus will acquire Valera in a transaction valued at $120 million plus contingent payments based on future product milestones.... » Read More



Features:

Newsmakers: Wyeth R&D
An interview with Dr. Frank Walsh, Head of Discovery Research, on Wyeth’s outsourcing strategy
by Gil Roth

How do you cope with success? Wyeth’s drug pipeline has grown by leaps and bounds, with a 400% increase in productivity from 2001-2005, in terms of compounds entering the clinic. With chemistry as the major bottleneck, the company elected to find an outsourcing partner. Searching worldwide and running pilot projects with partners in Russia, China and India, Wyeth signed an agreement Hyderabad-based GVK Bio in November 2005.

To find out how the company developed its R&D outsourcing strategy, and to see how that strategy fits into the company’s overall approach to outsourcing, we interviewed Frank Walsh, Ph.D., executive vice president, Head of Discovery Research, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Walsh joined Wyeth in 2002 and was named to his current post in January 2005.... » Read entire article



Risk Management in the Biomaterial Cold Chain
Mitigating risks & ensuring compliance
by Jeff Clark

The biopharmaceutical cold chain has begun to play an increasingly critical role in pharmaceutical and biotherapeutic development processes. It defines how temperature-sensitive biological assets are packaged, transported and stored throughout the R&D cycle. When building or evaluating their cold chain processes, drug developers must remain aware of one basic, yet often-overlooked principle: the cold chain is the same as any other chain in one key area—it is only as strong as its weakest link.... » Read entire article



Aseptic Process Validation
Is a new FDA guidance imminent?
by Tom Spurgeon

What are the regulatory pressures facing aseptic process validation today and what will they be like over the next few years? An inquiry into existing literature and with current industry personnel reveals a corner of the pharmaceuticals industry driven by a lattice of suggested improvements, a constant hum of activity and improvements that fight to keep pace with general industry trends and emerging technology. Those working in aseptic processing validation must consistently look five years ahead and five years behind, at rules and informative processes and market realities, all of which play off one another like so many strings on a musical instrument. With an important FDA guidance revision just now beginning its long fade into routine and a brand new one described as imminent, aseptic processing and its regulatory outlook is at the forefront of pharma and biopharma business plans.... » Read entire article



Online Exclusive:

Bio News & Views Interview
by Gil Roth

In September 2006, Tandem Labs acquired PharmaKD, a Boston-based, mass spectrometry-oriented provider of drug metabolite and biomarker identification services. With the acquisition, Tandem obtained proprietary informatics that can "reduce the difficulty, complexity, and time-consuming nature of developing and launching a drug to market," according to the company. This included MarkerScan, a biomarker discovery and screening process to "efficiently identify potential biomarkers that can be used to increase the understanding of disease, diagnosis, and predictive models as well as drug compound safety, efficacy, and side-effect profiles."... » Read entire article



Major Meetings

Feb 13-16: Informex 2007
The Moscone Center West, San Francisco, CA
Contact: Informex, Tel: 202-721-4100, Fax: 202-296-8120, Web: www.informex.com
Apr 24-26: Interphex 2007
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY
Contact: Reed Exhibitions, Tel: 203-840-5648, Web: www.interphex.com

May 6-9: BIO 2007
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA
Contact: BIO, Tel: 202-962-6655, Fax: 202-589-2545 Web: www.bio.org


See all the meetings at http://www.contractpharma.com/meetings.php