Fibristal (ulipristal acetate)
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Jul 052013
Asparagus Cochinchinensis as a Natural Antioxidant
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Jul 052013
Aqueous extracts obtained from the dried roots of Asparagus cochinchinensis show strong antioxidant activities
- Phenolic Contents, Antioxidant and Anti-inflammatory Activities of Asparagus cochinchinensis (Loureiro) Merrill,
Nadira Binte Samad, Trishna Debnath, Md. Abul Hasnat, Mehnaz Pervin, Da Hye Kim, Jeong Eun Jo, Sa Ra Park, Beong Ou Lim,
J. Food Biochem. 2013.
DOI: 10.1111/jfbc.12028
Sarepta Therapeutics Announces At-the-Market Equity Offering Facility
Phase 3 drug
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Jul 042013
Sarepta Therapeutics Announces At-the-Market Equity Offering Facility
Wall Street Journal
… for general corporate purposes, including for manufacturing scale up for eteplirsen, the planned confirmatory Phase III clinical study of eteplirsen and early development activities related to follow-on Duchenne muscular dystrophy drugs and other …
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Jul 032013
Health & Medicine
July 2, 2013
Eating fish high in omega-3 fatty acids is associated with a 14 percent reduction in the risk of breast cancer later in life, reports a new study.
Jun 292013
Navidea starts clinical trial for Alzheimer’s diagnostic drug
Phase 3 drug
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Jun 282013
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals hopes to bring an early diagnostic drug for Alzheimer’s disease to market.
AZD4694, NAV4694 STRUCTURE
Navidea starts clinical trial for Alzheimer’s diagnostic drug
Business First of Columbus
The Phase 3 trial for the Alzheimer’s agent, at the moment named NAV4694, will compare how well the drug displays the buildup of a damaging protein in the brain of patients believed to have Alzheimer’s compared with what’s found in the autopsy. There …
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http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2013/06/27/navidea-starts-clinical-trial-for.html
http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/54/6/880.abstract
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, a Dublin, Ohio biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostics, earlier this week announced the completion of a study of its novel radiopharmaceutical NAV4694 as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
NAV4694 is designed to aid visual detection and quantification of cerebral beta amyloid in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One hallmark of AD is the accumulation of beta amyloid plaques between nerve cells in the brain.
The study was designed and conducted by Navidea’s partner, AstraZeneca, to assess the safety and of the biomarker during PET scanning in subjects with AD and in healthy volunteers. Efficacy measures included binding parameters and overall image quality. The 16-patient trial was completed at Karolinska Institutet sites in Stockholm, Sweden.
Vical and Astellas Announce Initiation of Phase 3 Trial of ASP0113 Cytomegalovirus Vaccine
VACCINE
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Jun 272013
Illustration of the CMV life cycle from viral entry to egress of new infectious virions.
Jun 25, 2013, Vical Incorporated and Astellas Pharma Inc. today announced the initiation of a multinational Phase 3 registration trial of ASP0113 (TransVax(TM)), in approximately 500 hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients. Vical and Astellas entered into exclusive worldwide license agreements in 2011 to develop and commercialize ASP0113, Vical’s investigational therapeutic vaccine designed to control cytomegalovirus (CMV) in transplant recipients. Astellas is conducting the trial, and Vical is providing development, regulatory and manufacturing support. The companies expect to begin a separate Phase 2 trial of ASP0113 in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients later this year.
About ASP0113
ASP0113 is an investigational bivalent DNA vaccine containing plasmids (closed loops of DNA) encoding human CMV pp65 and gB antigens for induction of both cellular and humoral immune responses. ASP0113 is formulated with a proprietary poloxamer-based delivery system. ASP0113 has received orphan drug designation in the United States and Europe for HCT and SOT patients.
About CMV
CMV is a herpes virus that infects more than half of all adults in the United States by age 40, and is even more widespread in developing countries. A healthy immune system typically protects an infected person against CMV disease, but does not prevent or clear latent infection, and those whose immune systems are not fully functional are at high risk of CMV reactivation, potentially leading to severe illness or death. Those at greatest risk include transplant patients and infants born to mothers who first become infected during pregnancy. Vical is pursuing two distinct vaccine approaches for these separate market segments: ASP0113 for the transplant market and CyMVectin(TM) for the congenital disease market.
About Astellas
Astellas Pharma Inc., located in Tokyo, Japan, is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. Astellas has approximately 17,000 employees worldwide. The organization is committed to becoming a global category leader in Urology, Immunology (including Transplantation) and Infectious diseases, Oncology, Neuroscience and DM Complications and Kidney diseases. For more information on Astellas Pharma Inc., please visit www.astellas.com/en.
About Vical
Vical researches and develops biopharmaceutical products based on its patented DNA delivery technologies for the prevention and treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases. Potential applications of the company’s DNA delivery technology include DNA vaccines for infectious diseases or cancer, in which the expressed protein is an immunogen; cancer immunotherapeutics, in which the expressed protein is an immune system stimulant; and cardiovascular therapies, in which the expressed protein is an angiogenic growth factor. The company is developing certain infectious disease vaccines and cancer therapeutics internally. In addition, the company collaborates with major pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies that give it access to complementary technologies or greater resources. These strategic partnerships provide the company with mutually beneficial opportunities to expand its product pipeline and address significant unmet medical needs. Additional information on Vical is available at www.vical.com.
Could “Magic” Mushrooms be used to treat anxiety and depression?
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Jun 252013
Emerging research indicates that low doses of the active chemical psilocybin can have positive psychiatric effects. Image via Wikimedia Commons/Dohduhdah
The latest study, published last week in Experimental Brain Research, showed that dosing mice with a purified form of psilocybin reduced their outward signs of fear. The rodents in the study had been conditioned to associate a particular noise with the feeling of being electrically shocked, and all the mice in the experiment kept freezing in fear when the sound was played even after the shocking apparatus was turned off. Mice who were given low doses of the drug, though, stopped freezing much earlier on, indicating that they were able to disassociate the stimuli and the negative experience of pain more easily.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedeliccompound produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms, collectively known aspsilocybin mushrooms. The most potent are members of the genus Psilocybe, such asP. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens, but psilocybin has also been isolated from about a dozen other genera. As a prodrug, psilocybin is quickly converted by the body to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD, mescaline, and DMT. The effects generally include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and spiritual experiences, and can include possible adverse reactions such as nausea and panic attacks.
Psilocybin (O-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine or 4-PO-DMT) is a prodrug that is converted into the pharmacologicallyactive compound psilocin in the body by a dephosphorylation reaction. This chemical reaction takes place under strongly acidicconditions, or under physiological conditions in the body, through the action of enzymes called phosphatases.
Psilocybin is a tryptamine compound with a chemical structure containing an indole ring linked to an ethylamine substituent. It is chemically related to the amino acid tryptophan, and is structurally similar to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Psilocybin is a member of the general class of tryptophan-based compounds that originally functioned as antioxidants in earlier life forms before assuming more complex functions in multicellular organisms, including humans. Other related indole-containing psychedelic compounds includedimethyltryptamine, found in many plant species and in trace amounts in some mammals, and bufotenine, found in the skin ofpsychoactive toads. Biosynthetically, the biochemical transformation from tryptophan to psilocybin involves several enzyme reactions: decarboxylation, methylation at the N9 position, 4-hydroxylation, and O-phosphorylation. Isotopic labeling experiments suggest that tryptophan decarboxylation is the initial biosynthetic step and that O-phosphorylation is the final step. The precise sequence of the intermediate enzymatic steps is not known with certainty, and the biosynthetic pathway may differ between species.
A possible biosynthetic route to psilocybin. Although the order of the first (decarboxylation) and last (phosphorylation) steps are known with some certainty, the sequence of the two intermediate steps is speculative.
New aspects of natural products in drug discovery
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Jun 252013
Structures of compounds of microbial origin that are in development as anti-infective agents. Key to compounds: 1, arylomycin; 2, ECO-0501; 3, GE23077; 4, GE81112; 5, LBM415; 6, AC98–6446.
During the past 15 years, most large pharmaceutical companies have decreased the screening of natural products for drug discovery in favor of synthetic compound libraries. Main reasons for this include the incompatibility of natural product libraries with high-throughput screening and the marginal improvement in core technologies for natural product screening in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Recently, the development of new technologies has revolutionized the screening of natural products. Applying these technologies compensates for the inherent limitations of natural products and offers a unique opportunity to re-establish natural products as a major source for drug discovery. Examples of these new advances and technologies are described in this review.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966842X07000686
New aspects of natural products in drug discovery
- Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc., 10480 Wateridge Circle, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
- Available online 11 April 2007
Jun 242013
LINAGLIPTIN
Phase III studies show linagliptin improved blood glucose control in Asian …
Wall Street Journal
RIDGEFIELD, Conn. and INDIANAPOLIS, June 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced results from two phase III clinical studies that showed linagliptin in Asian adults, as …
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