Current Affairs Pharmacy

 Bausch + Lomb, the global eye health company, recently announced its entry into the growing Indian pharmaceutical market by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Micro Labs India, a leading provider of quality healthcare products. With this collaboration Bausch + Lomb will be finally entering the Indian pharma market after having a presence in the pharmaceutical vertical worldwide for over two decades. "Our company entered the pharma vertical in the year 1986 but at that time there was less confidence in the Indian pharma market from the company s side, and also we did not get any good collaborative opportunity like this. So we were just waiting for the right moment and the right opportunity," said Harish Natarajan, Managing Director, Bausch + Lomb India. Through the agreement with Micro Labs, Bausch + Lomb aims to capture part of the rapidly expanding ophthalmic pharmaceuticals market in India, which is expected to reach $300 million by 2015. In addition to gaining access to world-class manufacturing capabilities, Bausch + Lomb will establish dedicated sales and marketing teams. With the help of this collaboration Bausch + Lomb will be launching six pre- and post-operative eye drops in India namely, Moxisurge™, Aquasurge™,   Aquasurge   Max™, Bromvue™, Ketovue™ and a Moxisurge- KT™. While the manufacturing of these products will be taken care of by Micro Labs, Bausch + Lomb will look into setting up of quality processes, co-vigilance system and other such processes. "It gives us immense pleasure to partner with Bausch + Lomb, the most powerful brand in eye health as they enter into the pharmaceutical segment in India," said Anand Surana, Director, Micro Labs, India. 

Drugmaker J B Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals has announced the launch of a new business division catering to gynaecology and dental therapies with 15 products, and would exploit other therapeutic areas having good growth potential, sending its shares up by over 7 per cent. The gynaecology and dental segments have a combined market size of about Rs.2, 000 crore in India and are growing at 16 per cent every year. The new division has a sales force of over 100 representatives and it would triple the count over the next two years, it added. The launch would help company strengthen its position in the rural as well as urban markets in India. Pranabh Mody, President, J B Chemicals, had stated in May that the company would launch at least 15 new products from gynecology and dental division m India this year and would concentrate on Contract Research and    Manufacturing   Services (CRAMS) business post the deal with Johnson & Johnson. The company sold its over-the counter medicines business in Russia to an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson for about $260 million. The brands include Rinza, Russia's leading multi-symptom cough and cold brand, and Doktor Mom, Russia's No 2 cough brand.

Marck   Biosciences   Ltd, India's leading manufacturer and marketer of sterile dosages and Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) specialist, is ready to launch world's first ever paracetamol IV in plastic pack manufactured using BFS technology in India. Marck will be contract manufacturing paracetamol IV and will also launch it under its own brand name of' Febramol IV in India. Paracetamol IV is a ready to infuse dosage form of paracetamol (in 10 mg/ml solution), which is indicated for the short-term treatment of moderate pain, especially following surgery and for the short- term treatment of fever urgently when other routes of administration are not possible. Paracetamol IV in plastic has lower freight costs and breakages and helps in more competitive pricing in comparison to     glass     bottles. Marck has invested approximately $3.5 lakh to commercialize the production of paracetamol IV and expects growth of approximately $1 million sales with paracetamol IV in the first year of its launch. Speaking on the occasion, Bhavesh Patel, MD, Marck Biosciences, said, "Due to our proven ability to innovate and create a pack that further reduces the potential for microbial infection during manufacture, and our R&D team's dedicated efforts for 3 years, Marck has overcome the challenge of developing Paracetamol IV in blow-fill-seal pack and launched this product for the first time in the world." The company has already pioneered the export of paracetamol IV to West Africa, South East Asia and Middle East markets, and will now launch it in the Indian markets.

Amgen and UCB (Euronext Brussels, UCB) have collaborated with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to conduct a test of an antibody called sclerostin. This experiment would be conducted in space shuttle Atlantis on the final shutter mission of NASA, which was scheduled to be launched on July 8,2011. The antibody is going to be designed to inhibit the action of sclerostin- a protein that acts as a regulatory for bone formation, bone strength and bone mass. The findings from the research would help provide an insight into the prevention and treatment of skeletal fragility that can result from 'skeletal disuse' in conditions such as immobilization, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury and reduced physical activity. As loss of bone mass during space flights is one of the major concerns of the human space mission as it causes a lot of discomfort especially for people in long flights. AMG 785/CDP7851, a different sclerostin antibody than the one being used for this STS-135 mouse study, is currently in phase II clinical trials for bone-related conditions, including postmenopausal osteoporosis and fracture healing.

Nichrome India Ltd launched their first indigenously manufactured Spanish technology HFFS machine along with its high speed multilane sachet machine with US technology at the world's biggest packaging exposition Interpack 2011 at Dusseldorf, Germany in May this year. Nichrome TOTPACK HFFS machines will manufacture products such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical powders, juice concentrates, dry fruits, liquid chemicals & gels, capsules & tablets, swabs & tissues, etc. Whereas Nichrome Prodo-Pak High Speed multilane Sachet Machines will promote cosmetics & personal care, pharmaceuticals & nutraceuticals, capsules & tablets, and swans & tissues besides conventional applications like powders and liquid. They bagged their first order for the displayed T110 HFFS machine in the exposition and were approached by USA, Asia, Middle East and Europe and other Western markets. "It was the combination of advanced Spanish technology and credible Indian manufacturing that brought our machine to sell for itself. Nichromes' both technology tie-ups with Spanish and US were well received," informed Vaibhav Modak, Executive Director, Nichrome India Ltd.

Shire,     the     global     specialty biopharmaceutical          company, announced the expansion of its human genetic therapies pipeline through the exclusive licence, in markets outside of North America, for the activin receptor type IIB (ActRIIB) class of molecules being developed by Acceleron Pharma Inc, a private biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The association will initially investigate ACE-031, Acceleron's lead ActRIIB drug candidate, which is currently in phase 2 of the trial for the treatment of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). DMD is a fatal orphan muscle disease with no current treatment. ACE-031 and other ActRIIB molecules have the potential to be used in other muscular and neuromuscular disorders. Shire and Acceleron will collaborate on   a   worldwide   development programme to advance ACE-031 into a global phase 2/3 clinical programme designed to exhibit disease modification in DMD patients. They would utilize the facility to produce commercial supplies of the product for both parties Shire will also make a payment of $45 million to Acceleron, who is also eligible to receive additional development, regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to $165 million.

Olympics     2012     partner, GlaxoSmithKline, has signed a long- term agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency  (WADA) to create early detection method for medicines with performance- enhancing potential in sport. Under the agreement, GSK scientists would specifically identify substances with a probable or high risk of abuse in sport. These scientists would seek similarity to the pharmacological characteristics of existing performance-enhancing substances and analyses their reaction in the human body. This would include stimulatory effects or improved physical endurance. The historic partnership, which was officially ratified in London on June 23, will see GSK supply WADA with confidential information about medicines in early stage development that will be abused by athletes once they are licenced for appropriate patient use. John Fahey, President, WADA, said, "Our work with the pharmaceutical industry is critical to staying one step ahead of the dopers, who have an ever increasing level of scientific expertise. We are delighted to be entering into this partnership with GSK as it will play a significant role in helping WADA achieve its mission of a doping-free sporting culture."

Researchers from Australia have developed a pioneering inhaled spray designed to stop the onset of type 1 diabetes. The diabetes prevention spray vaccine is presently being put through clinical trials and has already produced positive results from mouse- based trials. 52 participants, all aged over 18, are taking part and all have early-stage type 1 diabetes. The nasal vaccine has shown to be successful in human type 1 diabetes, could also be tested with different vaccines for the prevention of other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis Type 1 diabetes is caused when the immune system turns on the beta cells responsible for manufacturing insulin and, as a result, glucose levels in urine and blood surge. These patients are therefore generally prescribed a daily supply of insulin via injection, to bring glucose levels back down. 

"Reduced drug development timelines, smaller batch sizes, increased safety requirements and more stringent validation guidelines are all driving the demand for single-use solutions in drug production," said Ken Frank, Senior Vice President, Pall Corporation & President, Pall's Biopharmaceutical Division. Pall Corporation, a global leader in filtration, separation   and purification, introduces the Pall Allegro™ 200L single-use mixer for high-performance mixing in biopharmaceutical applications from pilot scale to full production. This is designed to provide exceptional mixing performance for a wide range of liquid-liquid and solid-liquid mixing applications,, including compounding, formulation, buffer and media preparation, and pH/conductivity adjustment.  

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc recently announced a breakthrough workflow to overcome key analytical and informatics challenges in metabolomics. The workflow integrates new application software- Thermo Scientific SIEVE 2.0 differential expression analysis and Mass Frontier 7.0 structural elucidation software with powerful new Thermo Scientific High Resolution Accurate mass (HRAM) instruments: the Q Executive™ high performance bench top quadrupole-Ortemp™ LC-MS/MS and the Orbitrap Elite™ hybrid mass spectrometer. The revolutionary new products accelerate even the most complex metabolomics studies. Thermo Fisher Scientific in North America. "The new capability in SIEVE™ 2.0 software eliminates the most significant bottlenecks in current metabolomics data-processing, enabling scientists to find the most promising putative biomarkers quickly." SIEVE™ software is an automated solution for label-free, semi-quantitative differential expression analysis of proteins, peptides and metabolites. Using this software to pre-filter the high-quality accurate mass data generated by Thermo Scientific mass revolutionary new products accelerate even me most complex metabolomics studies. Spectrometers greatly reduces the number of compounds that need to be identified, increasing the throughput of complex biomarker discovery experiments significantly. SIEVE software is expanded to address each of the most tune-consuming challenges in metabolomics.