Cell therapy

New Developments in Analgesia By Dr Susan Boyce, Dr Zahid Ali and Dr Raymond G. Hill Novel therapies for pain and headache are major medical needs and constitute a continued opportunity. Novel treatments are likely to arise from a better understanding of both the pathophysiology of clinical pain conditions and the pharmacology of existing therapies. […]

Health economic considerations for early drug discovery By Dr Ann-Marie Craig and Dr Lisa Kennedy The use of health economics in early phase development, while not an exact science, can, when conjoined with clinical evidence, be a very valuable information tool enabling companies to identify whether there is a market worth pursuing while identifying issues […]

Surrogate Endpoints In Cancer Trials By Professor Karol Sikora Over the next 20 years systematic programmes of cancer risk assessment will be established and cancer-preventive drugs will be developed. The ability to prevent cancer will dramatically increase the number of people who will need to regularly attend clinics. This article discusses how we urgently need […]

Protein Arrays – New technology for the proteomics era By Dr Jeffrey P. Kiplinger The study of the human proteome will drive drug discovery in coming years; although how, when, and in what direction are a little uncertain at present. To build understanding of the role of the human protein complement in health, development, and […]

Unrealised wealth in the avalanche of science By Dr Benjamin P. Chen The human genome information complemented with high throughput screening, proteomics and molecular structure analysis has significantly increased the speed at which potential drug leads are identified. The Pandora’s box of intellectual properties opened as a result is beyond any one company’s capability to […]

Stem Cells – The long march forward to the clinic By Dr Alan Colman The area of cellular therapeutics has never been readily embraced by ‘Big Pharma’, with ethical and regulatory issues even more complex and troublesome than proteins. Can stem cell therapy provide the key to unlocking a rich vein of pharmaceutical activity? In […]

By Dr Doros Platika As the population ages, the scientific and medical communities are working to solve the challenges this changing demographic will place on society. Companies involved in the promising field of regenerative medicine are now on the cutting edge as it strives to promote longevity without disability. Regenerative medicine offers hope and promise […]

The Genie in the Test Tube – From Gene to Gene Therapy: Part 2 By Dr Jan Steiner In the previous edition, we discussed gene therapy in terms of potential vectors and their applications. Now, we discuss the potential clinical uses of these constructs. To date, the main applications of gene therapy have been in […]

The promise of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics By Dr Tim Peakman and Dr Steve Arlington Within the next 10 years the benefits of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics will inevitably outweigh the disadvantages. But what are the commercial and legal implications for the pharmaceutical industry especially for companies who have lead candidates ready to enter development? The twenty-first […]

Discovery Research in the Co-Genomic Era – Biology goes industrial By Dr Timothy Wells and Dr Georg Feger The parallel between the search for gold in the last century and drug discovery in the co-genome era is very clear. As with all gold rushes the rewards will go to the most creative entrepreneurs who can […]

Drug Delivery – Adding value to drug development and commercialisation By Dr Cornelis ‘Cees’ Winnips The importance of drug delivery as a tool to improve R&D productivity, to provide a pathway for valuable drugs to be successfully commercialised and as an expanding resource to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, has come a long way since […]

By Michael P. Murphy, MSc Pharmacogenomics offers the opportunity to adopt a new paradigm in drug development. The pharmaceutical industry is faced with a number of challenges including relatively low productivity and success in bringing new drugs to market. Investors demand that pharmaceutical companies deliver several new drugs to the marketplace each year. Additional pressure […]

The Genie in the Test Tube – From Gene to Gene Therapy: Part 1 By Dr Jan Steiner For thousands of years, medicine was a descriptive art, with treatments for disease arising from astute observation and trial and error. The rise of modern forms of biological sciences, especially the developments in molecular biology over the […]

Emerging therapeutic vaccines By Marc Hertz, Soren Mouritsen and Anand Gautam The excitement over the past 30 years for immunotherapy of cancer and other diseases has not led to the expected clinical successes. Over-enthusiasts predicted a cure for cancer with the initial development of monoclonal antibody technology, and later the ‘magic bullets’ or toxin-labelled antibodies. […]

By Jennie Gwynn and Peter J Hylands Putting aside the excitement surrounding the human genome, in the near future we may well start to see the emergence of a new class of prescription medicine containing complex mixtures of plant extracts. This article discusses the important role that plants can play in the search for new […]