Pharmacology/ Therapeutics News for December 2012

Pharmacology/ Therapeutics News Archive

Roche’s vismodegib named Drug Discovery of the Year by the British Pharmacological Society Roche’s vismodegib named Drug Discovery of the Year by the British Pharmacological Society

Roche today announced that the first in class Hedgehog pathway inhibitor vismodegib, was named Drug Discovery of the Year by the British Pharmacological Society.

A drug used to treat HIV might defuse deadly staph infections A drug used to treat HIV might defuse deadly staph infections

A new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers suggests that an existing HIV drug called maraviroc could be a potential therapy for Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious and deadly pathogen linked to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations each year. Their study is published online this week in Nature.

Automated design for drug discovery Automated design for drug discovery

A system of `automated design’ for new drugs could help develop the complex therapies needed for many medical conditions while also improving drug safety and efficiency, new research from the University of Dundee has shown.

Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer ‘designer’ drug Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer ‘designer’ drug

Biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in genetically engineering algae to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.

Sanford-Burnham research projects selected to go to space Sanford-Burnham research projects selected to go to space

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) has announced that two of the Institute’s research teams have won Space Florida’s International Space Station (ISS) Research Competition. Eight teams were selected from a pool of international applicants to send experiments to space in late 2013. The competition was initiated by Space Florida, the state’s spaceport and aerospace authority, and NanoRacks, LLC. Sanford-Burnham’s research will fly as payloads to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and research will be conducted on board the U.S. National Lab at the ISS.

Breakthrough personalised medicine launched for lung cancer Breakthrough personalised medicine launched for lung cancer

Pfizer Limited announced today that Xalkori (crizotinib), the first of a new class of therapy for a type of lung cancer is now available in the UK. Crizotinib, an oral treatment, has been granted a conditional licence for patients with previously treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), whose tumours test positively for a specific protein known as ALK. It is the only approved therapy for this subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and signals the most recent advance in personalised therapy in lung cancer.