Pharmacy - Articles

The trade in discounted prescription drugs between Canada and the US has elicited considerable controversy on both sides of the border. Yet recent figures show that sales of drugs via Canadian pharmacies have not been as great as some had predicted. However, as Datamonitor's David Deon explains, pharmaceutical companies could go further by driving the expansion of online prescribing in the US...
and have generated about $545,000 in sales in the first five months of their state-sponsored websites offering Canadian drugs, according to figures made public last week. These are the first public accounting figures showing how much residents are using the websites, which were created by the governors of the two states. Yet the level of sales recorded represents a fraction of the cross-border bus…

Bacterial skin diseases like gangrene can now expect an onslaught of new specialist medications. However, skin infections make up a relatively small proportion of the $20.4 billion annual global antibacterial market, which, says Datamonitor's Amber Gibson, raises questions about why such conditions are the current focus of so much antibacterial product development...
Although skin and skin structure infections represent one of the most common types of bacterial ailments, they are still relatively infrequent when compared to respiratory tract and urinary tract infections. Skin and skin structure infections accounted for only 3% of the $6.5 billion US drugstore sales attributable to antibacterial infections in 2003. However, skin infections are the one sector of the anti-bacterial market wher…

By 2012, the anti-obesity drugs market will be worth an estimated $2.5 billion globally, compared to $526 million today. However, new drugs will not be the answer to the growing obesity problem. Datamonitor's Jasjeet Mohain argues that increasing education and awareness of the importance of good diet and exercise will remain crucial to combating obesity...
Datamonitor estimates that there are 127 million obese people in the , , , , , and the and over half of them reside in the . Despite increasing health awareness campaigns and attempts to slow down the startling increase in obesity rates, Datamonitor predicts that the prevalence of obesity will increase to 168 million in the alone by 2012. Health complications and comorbidities associated with obesity are a huge drain on national heal…

New clinical research presented at the 15th International AIDS Conference (IAC) shows that Fuzeon is proving to be remarkably effective in the first long-term trial of its benefits.
However, its administration by subcutaneous injection is precluding therapy in up to 80% of patients. Datamonitor's Laura Harris looks at some later line therapies that could be orally available, prompting greater uptake... Fuzeon (enfuvirtide) was developed by Roche and Trimeris and launched in the in March 2003, with European launches taking place throughout 2003 and 2004. It was licensed as a salvage therapy in patients who have demonstrated virologic failure to alternative antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and have developed resistant strains of HIV. Fuzeon is the first novel HIV drug to reach the market for…

Acute pain resulting from conditions such as headache, muscle spasms, dental problems or following surgery, affects 90 million Americans every year. A recent study has demonstrated the analgesic activity of corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH) and has shown that this activity is probably due to activity within the central nervous system.
DailyUpdates 13th July: Acute pain resulting from conditions such as headache, muscle spasms, dental problems or following surgery, affects 90 million Americans every year.  A recent study has demonstrated the analgesic activity of corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH) and has shown that this activity is probably due to activity within the central nervous system. It has been estimated that 9% of the population suffers from moderate to severe n…

Recently published data from the GENOA study has demonstrated that dyslipidemia is highly prevalent in hypertensive adults and that this condition is insufficiently treated in more than half of the cases. As Datamonitor's Laurent Chanroux explains, the results lend further support to cross risk-factor, single pill combination therapies such as Pfizer's Caduet...
Less than one third of hypertensive adults with dyslipidemia are drug-treated, according to findings from the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study. In addition, the research also showed that fewer than half of those treated achieve recommended lipid levels. This suggests a need for a more aggressive treatment of dyslipidemic hypertensives and highlights the potential of cross risk-factor single-pill combination…

Analysts have recently predicted that the market for airway inflammatory diseases will increase by 35% to over $18 billion by 2011. A recent target evaluation report produced for the drug development sector concluded that the TH2-derived cytokines IL-4, and more so IL-13 represent promising targets. Both cytokines activate IL-4Ralpha to produce multiple functional changes observed in asthma patients. A recent report published in the Journal of Immunology elucidates the divergent mechanisms th
The emerging role of the IL-4/IL-3 cytokine receptor IL-4Ralpha in asthma DailyUpdates 9th July: Analysts have recently predicted that the market for airway inflammatory diseases will increase by 35% to over $18 billion by 2011.  A recent target evaluation report produced for the drug deve…

Metabolic syndrome, a cluster of common metabolic disorders including obesity, pre-diabetes, abnormal lipid levels and high blood pressure, is now approaching epidemic proportions worldwide.
A new report* from independent market analyst Datamonitor (DTM.L) reveals that a total 115 million individuals suffer from this syndrome in the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.  According to Datamonitor, this number is set to increase rapidly, fuelled by the rising obesity and diabetes epidemic. Significant though it is, the metabolic syndrome patient population remains poorly diagnosed and there are no drugs currently available to treat all components of metabolic syndrome. Lifestyle changes are recommended as first line therapy, however the proposed lifestyle counseling…

SureScripts, in partnership with the Massachusetts Medical Society, is launching an educational network providing physicians with information from the early adopters of ePrescribing technology. Datamonitor's Kimberly O'Malley argues that educational forums like this allow members to more efficiently evaluate and subsequently adopt electronic prescribing as a solution for their practices...
SureScripts is the largest of several technology vendors that have developed a solution to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of the prescribing process by establishing an electronic prescribing network between physicians and pharmacists. SureScripts activates its electronic prescribing network (called SureScripts Messenger Services) in individual states using a consolidated community-wide effo…

This edition of "Emerging Drug Discovery Targets" features new approaches to improving intestinal uptake of poorly absorbed therapeutics; a dual 5-LO inhibitor/H1 receptor antagonist for the treatment of asthma; Sitaxentan as an effective treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; Kv1.3 potassium channel blockade as an approach to insulin resistance; Drug delivery technology predicted to allow safer and more effective use of steroids in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; VEGF receptor tyr
Emerging Drug Discovery Targets from to view this alert on line please go to http://www.leaddiscovery.co.uk/TherapeuticAdvances%20Archive/June%2028th%20emerging%20targets.htm ************************************** "Emerging Drug Discovery Targets" provides a regular summary of some of the most exc…

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the more common autoimmune diseases. LeadDiscovery’s recent state of the art evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis therapeutics evaluates advances in our understanding of the etiology of the disease. One field of research extensively analyzed in this report is angiogenesis. Inhibitors of receptor tyrosine kinase with specific activity against the VEGFRs have been developed in an attempt to prevent angiogenesis. One such molecule is PTK787/ZK222584, synthesized and dev
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the more common autoimmune diseases affecting approximately 5 million individuals in the Western world. As described in LeadDiscovery’s state of the art evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis therapeutics (click here), this field is attracting massive interest in the…

An estimated 5 million individuals suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. Corticosteroids are the most dramatically effective short-term anti-inflammatory drugs; however, clinical benefit for rheumatoid arthritis often diminishes with time. Because of their long-term systemic side effects, corticosteroids are usually given only after a careful and prolonged trial of less hazardous drugs. Liposomes are artificial vesicles efficiently phagocytosed by macrophages and recent advances such as the developm
Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the more common autoimmune diseases along with multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes and Crohn’s disease. Approximately one in five people in the western world suffer from autoimmune diseases and some estimates indicate that 75% of these are women. In total it is predict…

The R&D activity surrounding novel oral treatments of diabetes is considerable and one particular target that has recently received attention is the Kv1.3 potassium channel. Blocking this channel has been thought to be of value in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and more recently for preventing weight gain. Now researchers from Yale have demonstrated that Kv1.3 channel blockers may also increase insulin sensitivity in genetically obese and diabetic mice
According to WHO, there are some 130 million diagnosed diabetics in the world, a figure that is predicted to increase to 300 million by 2025. The market for diabetes therapeutics is also rising with global sales reportedly topping $8.1 billion for the 12 months to September 2000, a 19% increase over the previous 12 months (for a full ana…

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) represents an unmet market. Initial breakthroughs in treatment focussed on the rare form of this condition, idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Recently however a key advance in the treatment of PAH was made with the launch of Actelion's twice-daily Tracleer (bosentan) as the first orally active treatment of both idiopathic and secondary PAH. Tracleer is the first generation of a class of drugs known as endothelin receptor antagonists and blocks two
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) exists in a rare idiopathic or unexplained form (which occurs in familial and sporadic forms) called idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH, previously referred to as primary pulmonary hypertension, PPH)) and a relatively common form of secondary pulmo…

Numerous inflammatory mediators have been implicated in the etiology of asthma. Blocking specific inflammatory mediators has frequently yielded unimpressive clinical results and instead the simultaneous targeting or more than one mediator may be of greater use. In the current edition of LeadDiscovery's TherapeuticAdvances work by researchers at UCB who have developed a dual 5-LO inhibitor/H1 receptor antagonist is highlighted
The incidence of asthma has dramatically increased over recent years and although currently available treatments are generally effective, patient compliance is currently poor, especially with respect to inhaled treatment. Furthermore, 5% of patients are unresponsive to these treatments and it is this cohort that accounts for a large segment of asthma related healthcare…

PABORD is the first exhibition and conference dedicated to Outsourcing in Research and Development for the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries.
PABORD is the first exhibition and conference dedicated to Outsourcing in Research and Development for the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries. With an international line-up of renowned speakers, thiscutting-edge new event is taking place at London's ExCel conference and exhibition venue on September 28th and 29th 2004. Almost 200 companies will be participating at PABORD, Europe's first show that focuses completely on the rapidly expanding trend towards outsourcing in the research and development of new therapeutics. PABORD is extremely well timed, considering how this new trend is having such an increasinglyprofound effect on the…

Pharma NewsBytes selects out some of the most interesting press releases to have appeared on LeadDiscovery’s DailyUpdates tracking service over the past few weeks. This edition includes an update on selected releases from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Diabetes Association as well as important news concerning the antipsychotic, Abilify (Aripiprazole) and novel HIV treatments

With several blockbuster biological products approaching patent expiry and the emergence of new approval pathways, the biogenerics segment represents an attractive opportunity for companies looking to escape intensifying competition in the commodity generics sector. However, with the biotech industry preparing significant opposition to any new regulatory initiatives, barriers to market entry could remain high.
In the report 'Biogenerics: Drivers and Resistors of Market Development', Datamonitor evaluates developments in the regulatory environment for biogenerics in the US and EU. The research also analyzes possible market entry strategies and assesses the market potential of biogenerics, and the barriers to companies wishing to enter the industry. Growing demand for biogenerics Despite st…

DailyUpdates 20th April: Nearly 423,000 new cases of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are expected to have been diagnosed in the seven major pharmaceutical markets in 2003. Despite the high level of pharmaceutical interest, there are significant unmet needs in the disease in terms of poor survival. Docetaxel is the only drug currently approved in both the U.S. and Europe to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer in the second-line setting. While the dr
DailyUpdates 20th April: Nearly 423,000 new cases of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are expected to have been diagnosed in the seven major pharmaceutical markets in 2003. Despite the high level of pharmaceutical interest, there are significant unmet needs i…

DailyUpdates 11th May: A number of clinical studies including the VIGOR trial have suggested that the NSAID naproxen may reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction. However the gastrointestinal side-effects of naproxen and its ability to exacerbate hypertension preclude its use in at-risk individuals. Upcoming data about to be published in the journal JPET demonstrate the efficacy of the safer and anti-hypertensive nitro-derivative of naproxen, HCT 3012, in a model of myocardial infarction.
DailyUpdates 11th May: A number of clinical studies including the VIGOR trial have suggested that the NSAID naproxen may reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction.  However the gastrointestinal side-effects of naproxen and its ability to exacerbate hypertension preclude its use in at-r…