WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three pharmaceutical giants are unlocking their freezers to see if government-funded scientists can reinvent some of their old drugs. Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly & Co. entered a unique program with the National Institutes of Health on Thursday that both sides hope will speed the development of new treatments by dusting off two dozen old drugs that failed to treat one disease but might treat another. "The goal is simple, to see whether we can teach old drugs new tricks," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Lots of experimental drugs prove safe in early human testing but fail to help the disease their manufacturer had hoped to treat. Despite the years of work and tens of millions of dollars invested in them, "too many times these compounds, they end up sitting on shelves or they end up in somebody's freezer," said Pfizer senior vice president Rod MacKenzie. Some of those drugs might be able to fight other diseases, said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. Consider: A failed cancer drug turned into the first effective AIDS treatment, AZT. The notorious thalidomide caused birth defects in the 1960s when some countries used it for morning sickness, but … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/h8xwpv/therapeutic_protei) has announced the addition of the "Therapeutic Proteins to 2016. Drugs, Devices, Diseases, Markets and Forecasts" report to their offering. In recent years, the number of protein-based pharmaceuticals reaching the marketplace has increased exponentially. The clinical application of these drugs is limited by a lack of desirable attributes for adequate absorption or distribution. It therefore becomes critical to formulate these drugs into safe, stable and efficacious delivery systems. Because these drugs face formidable enzymatic and penetration barriers when administered orally, peptide and protein drugs continue to be developed almost exclusively for parenteral administration. These combination drug-device products, where the drug and device are clinically tested and approved as a single product entity, are becoming one of the fastest new drug categories. The growth of protein drug products is having a significant effect on the way drugs and devices are developed. Cooperation between device designers and drug developers is occurring much earlier in the drug development cycle, allowing device designs in many cases to be tailored to the bioavailability targets and pharmacokinetic profiles of specific drug therapies. Highlights: - Analyzes approved therapeutic protein products and pipeline candidates and assesses the market potential for existing and … Continue reading →

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Editor's note: Harriet A. Washington is a medical ethicist, a former research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the author of two books, "Medical Apartheid" and "Deadly Monopolies." (CNN) -- What if most of the drugs your doctor gave you were untested, forcing him or her to guess at the correct medication and dosage -- making you an unwitting research subject whenever you took a pill? Dr. Florence Bourgeois and her colleagues at Harvard University have just reminded us that today, this very situation confronts the world's children. Four of every five kids hospitalized in the United States are treated with drugs that have never been tested in them, according to Bourgeois' report in this week's Pediatrics journal. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for adults. And outside the hospital, one-third of all children take such medications. Doctors can legally use such drugs, but determining a safe, effective dose -- if there is one -- can be a matter of guesswork, because little ones can metabolize drugs very differently than adults. For instance, the cheap broad-spectrum antibiotic chloramphenicol, used most frequently in low-income countries, can debilitate infants, causing vomiting, low blood pressure and impaired … Continue reading →

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Editor's note: Harriet A. Washington is a medical ethicist, a former research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the author of two books, "Medical Apartheid" and "Deadly Monopolies." (CNN) -- What if most of the drugs your doctor gave you were untested, forcing him or her to guess at the correct medication and dosage -- making you an unwitting research subject whenever you took a pill? Dr. Florence Bourgeois and her colleagues at Harvard University have just reminded us that today, this very situation confronts the world's children. Four of every five kids hospitalized in the United States are treated with drugs that have never been tested in them, according to Bourgeois' report in this week's Pediatrics journal. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for adults. And outside the hospital, one-third of all children take such medications. Doctors can legally use such drugs, but determining a safe, effective dose -- if there is one -- can be a matter of guesswork, because little ones can metabolize drugs very differently than adults. For instance, the cheap broad-spectrum antibiotic chloramphenicol, used most frequently in low-income countries, can debilitate infants, causing vomiting, low blood pressure and impaired … Continue reading →