Pharmaceutical Technologist - March 2008 - (Page 7)

News A cash injection for oral insulin Relief for those who dread insulin injections close at hand? A significant grant from the UK’s Cunningham Trust will aid research into developing the world’s first oral form of insulin. The £63000 (approximately €83579) grant will enable the Robert Gordon University’s School of Pharmacy in Aberdeen (UK) to conduct the pioneering work. In 2007, researchers from the university demonstrated that insulin can be protected in a novel polymer synthesized in the laboratory, which is a key step in ensuring that the insulin is not broken down by enzymes and rendered useless before entering the bloodstream. Dr Woei Ping Cheng explains: “One of the obstacles in developing oral insulin is that, if swallowed without any kind of protection from enzymes in the gut, the insulin will be broken down before it has a chance to circulate in the blood and have the desired effect on blood glucose levels.” A patent has already been filed for the work completed so far, and the funding will allow the team to perform further testing to determine the polymer’s suitability as an insulin delivery system. Dr Rachel Knott, an expert in cell biology who is working with Cheng, says: “We will try to demonstrate how these insulin delivery systems work in an isolated cell system, and whether they will be able to enhance the body’s uptake when taken orally.” She believes that oral insulin is still some years away, but that “our research is taking us a significant step towards this important goal.” www.rgu.ac.uk Can African safety be ensured? An international conference has taken place to address the threat of counterfeit medicines and unregistered generics in Africa. Twenty customs officials, medicine regulators and government representatives from 10 sub-Saharan countries, as well as representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pharmaceuticals Security Institute, met to share experiences and to develop comprehensive action plans to help keep African medicine supplies — and patients — safe. “The threat counterfeit medicines pose to society is very real,” said WHO representative, Moses Chisale. “They are present in all regions, but those areas where regulatory and legal oversight are weakest bear the brunt of the problem Combating counterfeiting is a shared responsibility involving relevant government agencies, manufacturers, distributors, health professionals, consumers and the general public.” The conference was sponsored by Pfizer, which believes: “…patients who require our medicines should get a safe and effective medicine and not a potentially dangerous counterfeit.” Since 2004, authorities have seized more than 30 million counterfeit Pfizer tablets, and enough APIs to manufacture 50 million more. www.who.int www.pfizer.com Huntington’s novel drugs A contract extension could reward Evotec (Germany) with €24 million in research payments. The company has been working with the CHDI Foundation (Cure Huntington’s Disease Institute), a not-for-profit organization pursuing a biotech approach to finding therapies for Huntington’s Disease, since March 2006. CHDI has now extended the collaboration until the end of 2010. “CHDI depends on a network of academic and industrial partners to conduct its research efforts,” says Dr Robert Pacifici, chief scientific advisor to CHDI. “We remain impressed by Evotec’s breadth of drug discovery expertise coupled with their knowledge of central nervous system diseases that ideally complement our efforts in the search for novel treatments that may slow or prevent Huntington’s Disease.” Further to continuing the collaboration, the companies have also reached an agreement whereby Evotec will provide ultra high-throughput screening support. Dr Mark Ashton, vice president business, development services at Evotec, is hopeful that they “have the tools in place to rapidly discover novel drugs against Huntington’s Disease targets.” www.evotec.com www.chdi-inc.org www.ptemagazine.com 7 http://www.rgu.ac.uk http://www.who.int http://www.evotec.com http://www.pfizer.com http://www.chdi-inc.org http://www.ptemagazine.com

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Pharmaceutical Technologist - March 2008 Contents News Morpheus Market Watch E-procurement Means Lean Procurement The Rational Enquirer Simulating for Success Q&A

Pharmaceutical Technologist - March 2008

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