Pharma News

(11th November, 2014); Pharma Major Lupin Limited (Lupin) announced that it has received final approval for its Celecoxib Capsules, 50 mg from the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to market a generic version of G.D. Searle LLC’s (a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc.) Celebrex® Capsules 50 mg. Lupin also received tentative approvals for its Celecoxib capsules 100 mg, 200 mg and 400 mg strengths from the FDA.

An experimental drug aimed at treating a common liver disease showed promising results and potential problems in a multicenter clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health. The FLINT study found that people with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) who took obeticholic acid (OCA) had improved liver health during that period, including decreased inflammation and fat in the liver and decreased body weight versus people receiving a placebo. OCA was also associated with increases in itching and total cholesterol.

(11th November, 2014); The explosive organic compound pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) might one day allow pregnant women to protect their daughters from developing high blood pressure (BP) before they’re born, according to an animal study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension.

(10th November, 2014); All multicellular creatures are descended from single-celled organisms. The leap from unicellularity to multicellularity is possible only if the originally independent cells collaborate. So-called cheating cells that exploit the cooperation of others are considered a major obstacle. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany, together with researchers from New Zealand and the USA, have observed in real time the evolution of simple self-reproducing groups of cells from previously individual cells.

(6th November, 2014; Business Wire India); Asia’s leading Discovery Research and Development organization, GVK BIO, announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Vanta Bioscience, a full service preclinical GLP toxicology and safety assessment contract research organization operating out of Chennai, India.

(6th November, 2014); New Danish-led research suggests that signs of brain aging can be postponed in mice if placed on a high-fat diet. In the long term, this opens the possibility of treatment of children suffering from premature aging and patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The research project is headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health.

(6th November, 2014); After successful 3rd clinical trial of Denue vaccine, Sanofi will file for registration of its vaccine candidate and, subject to regulatory approval, the world’s first dengue vaccine could be available in the second half of 2015.

(5th November, 2014); Today, Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2014 is withdrawn by government with approval of shri Narendra Modi, PM of India. It needs further amendments in bill.

(4th November, 2014); Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, said here today that the government would institutionalise a regulatory authority with full powers to oversee all-round quality standards enforcement and consumer protection under the National Health Assurance Mission (NHAM).