Pharma News

(26th November, 2014); Kerala based natural drug company, Arjuna Natural Extracts Ltd, got US patent of turmeric extract for treatment of Alzheimers disease. BCM-95, has received a US patent (US Patent No. 8859020) for a composition for the treatment of Alzheimers disease comprising curcuminoid mixture and added essential oil of turmeric. The patent also covers method of making the composition.

(18th November, 2014) ; MIT engineers have transformed the genome of the bacterium E. coli into a long-term storage device for memory. They envision that this stable, erasable, and easy-to-retrieve memory will be well suited for applications such as sensors for environmental and medical monitoring.

(17th November, 2014; Business Wire India); We are all aware of the dangers of a heart attack, few are aware of an equally dangerous condition called “Leg Attacks”. Quite similar to heart attacks, leg attacks occur when there are blockages in the blood vessels of the leg. This condition is exacerbated in Diabetics, those aged above 50 and smokers who are at a higher risk of developing blockages or peripheral vascular diseases. Leg attack is one of the extreme conditions arising from blockages in the vessels of the limbs which can lead to non healing ulcer even limb amputation. Most doctors agree that despite the severity of leg attacks, most cases remain undiagnosed till the last stage due to a lack of awareness of the disease and its symptoms.

(12th November, 2014); Brodalumab, a novel psoriasis drug from colloboration of Amgen and Astrazeneca shown superior results in compare to Stelara® (ustekinumab) in head to head trials. The trial conducated on moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis which met its primary endpoints when compared with both Stelara and placebo at week 12. Brodalumab was shown to be superior to Stelara on the primary endpoint of achieving total clearance of skin disease, as measured by the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI 100).

(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.