International Top Pharmaceutical Awards

  The BDDH assembles a bespoke team for each project, and conducts a triage followed by a systematic ‘target-chemistry-patient’ evaluation, which identifies key risks and mitigation measures, and flushes out gaps in the data that need to be filled before a project can enter clinical trials. A novel approach to drug discovery is enabling University of Birmingham researchers to overcome the ‘valley of death’, where projects fail due to the funding gap between original research and commercial investment. The approach, detailed in a feature published in the April issue of  Drug Discovery Today , has attracted more than £4m in industry funding, grants and industry awards, on the back of just £0.2m investment from the University’s Dynamic Investment Fund (DIF). The  Birmingham Drug Discovery Hub  (BDDH) was set up following a review that showed despite significant expertise in fields necessary for drug discovery, including a strong clinical team and two world-leading clini...

  Greece aims to become a hub for pharmaceutical research and drug production in Europe. The investments already started by the Greek pharmaceutical industry will reach 1.5 billion euros by 2026 and include the upgrading of existing ones, but also the construction of 10 new factories throughout Greece with 56 production lines, 14 new research structures and the employment of 5,500 highly skilled workers, the president of the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Industry Association, Theodoros Tryfon, said on Sunday. He described the ambitious investment plan of the Greek pharmaceutical industry, its actions to reverse the brain drain into a brain gain and made proposals for pharmaceutical policy. These developments will strengthen the position of Greece in the field of pharmaceutical research and drug production, which today has 45 factories, represents approximately 10% of the European production network, and has a competitive international presence in almost 150 countries of the world. nul...

  Owkin  has unveiled an innovative drug pipeline in oncology and immunology following an exclusive global licensing agreement with   Idorsia   to develop and commercialise OKN4395, a clinic-ready best-in-class dual inhibitor of prostanoid receptors EP2 and EP4. Owkin’s unique pipeline is the product of several internal AI engines powered by multimodal patient data from a network of 61 leading research centers and cutting-edge AI from a team of 110 data scientists that have published  57 top publications . Owkin’s pipeline is differentiated by the use of spatial multiomics data via  MOSAIC , the world's largest spatial multiomics dataset in oncology that enables Owkin to capture the tumor microenvironment in a way that few others can. With deep immune response expertise in T-cell connectivity and seven years of successful AI drug discovery projects internally and with leading pharma partners, Owkin is poised to tackle some of the most critical challenges in...

  Insider Brief A research team received £1 million to use quantum computers to explore a drug discovery effort. The University of Nottingham will partner with Phasecraft and QuEra Computing Inc. on a project to develop new drugs for myotonic dystrophy. The award is part of the Wellcome Leap’s $50 million supported challenge program Quantum for Bio(Q4Bio). News, Image: University of Nottingham PRESS RELEASE — A team of researchers have been awarded over £1 million to explore the capabilities of quantum computing for developing new drugs for myotonic dystrophy. The University of Nottingham, with partners  Phasecraft  and  QuEra Computing Inc.  are one of only 12 successful teams worldwide to be selected for funding as part of the  Wellcome Leap  $50 million supported challenge program  Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio), that aims to accelerate applications of quantum computing to address pressing human health challenges. The “Quantum computing...

  In advance of a Senate hearing on health care costs, the NAM is ensuring that senators understand the importance of biopharmaceutical innovation to patients and the U.S. economy—and the damaging impact of policies that hinder drug development. What’s happening:  The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing today on whether harmful policies like price controls, compulsory licensing and weaker intellectual property protections for new medicines could reduce servicemembers’ health care costs. NAM pushes back:  The NAM is highlighting the extraordinary investment—in both time and capital—that it takes to bring a lifesaving treatment to market. According to the  NAM : The average cost of developing a new drug was $2.3 billion as of 2022; Across the industry, biopharmaceutical manufacturers spent $139 billion on R&D in just 2022 alone; It can take 10 to 15 years for a breakthrough scientific discovery to move through early-stage research, clin...

  Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously said that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. We note that   Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.   ( NASDAQ:RARE ) does have debt on its balance sheet. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt? What Risk Does Debt Bring? Generally speaking, debt only becomes a real problem when a company can't easily pay it off, either by raising capital or with its own cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. Having said that, the most common situation is wher...

  In the existing drug development ecosystem, patients and caregivers are bucking the natural order to take the reins of innovation in drug development into their own hands. Two experts spoke on the evolving roles of patients and caregivers across clinical trials at the  15 th  Annual Outsourcing in Clinical Trials East Coast conference, which is being held 21 – 22 May in King of Prussia, US. Trial sponsors tend to be in a position to dictate what innovations can flow, said advisor and founder of Clinical Innovation Partners, Craig Lipset in his keynote presentation on the patient’s role in driving innovation in clinical research. Other key stakeholders in the environment are technology, which generates widely used tools; regulators that facilitate innovation for sponsors by making it “predictable”; and payers, who have the power to determine how, when, and which patients get medicines. “Does pharma have the right to be the sole stewards and decision makers over what inno...

  Source: Getty Images   The research team indicated that forecasting patients’ therapy response has significant potential to inform and improve treatment, as current immunotherapies are limited. “Immunotherapies have made incredible strides in extending survival for cancer patients, but they only work about 20% of the time. To make immunotherapies more beneficial, we need to have a much better understanding of the cellular composition of specific tumors and how those cells interact with each other,” said Isaac Chan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern, in the press release. The researchers noted that existing immunotherapies rely on the knowledge that many types of cells – including cancer and immune cells – are present in tumors. These immune cells can either attack tumors or promote them. Current immunotherapies often stimulate T cells, a type of immune cell, to f...

  The Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine (KIPM) will continue its mission to improve health care by training physicians and scientists in precision medicine and supporting their research, thanks to a renewed Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Precision medicine considers individual differences in people’s genes, environments and lifestyles to inform diagnoses and prognoses and identify the most effective therapies and treatments. The five-year, $11.4 million grant will provide junior investigators with support, mentoring and funding for research and initiatives with a precision medicine focus and offer pilot grants that are also available to more established investigators. “It's been a passion of mine for my entire career, trying to understand how you move things from discovery into change in clinical practice,” said Andrew Godwin, Ph.D., founding director o...

  Expand Shutterstock A new technique for 3D printing medication has enabled the printing of multiple drugs in a single tablet, paving the way for personalised pills that can deliver timed doses. Researchers from the University of Nottingham’s, Centre for Additive Manufacturing have led research alongside the School of Pharmacy that has fabricated personalised medicine using Multi-Material InkJet 3D Printing (MM-IJ3DP). The research has been published in  Materials Today Advances. The team have developed a cutting-edge method that enables the fabrication of customised pharmaceutical tablets with tailored drug release profiles, ensuring more precise and effective treatment options for patients. Using Multi-Material InkJet 3D Printing (MM-IJ3DP), tablets can be printed that release drugs at a controlled rate, determined by the tablet's design.  This is made possible by a novel ink formulation based on molecules that are sensitive to ultraviolet light. When printed, these mo...

  Summary Life science tool companies have faced challenges in the post-pandemic adjustment process, but Bruker has fared better than many due to its leverage to research tools. Bruker's high exposure to potentially weaker academic and government end-markets presents challenges, but Bruker's tools address high-priority research areas in biology, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors. Bruker is well-positioned for healthy revenue growth in 2024, with potential growth in the Chinese market and increasing interest in proteomics and spatial biology driving growth opportunities. Improving tool functionality and a growing ecosystem of complementary products could drive proteomics and spatial biology to a tipping point where Bruker's revenue really accelerates. Bruker is not conventionally cheap but offers growth at a reasonable price for investors who see upside in proteomics and spatial biology research activity/spending. Dr_Microbe/iStock via Getty Images The post-pandemic adjust...