Industry news

Russian chip for blood tests enters India’s pharma market

Marchmont Innovation News

Semiotic, a Russian developer and manufacturer of microchips for blood tests, and Yashraj Biotechnology Ltd., one of the Top-20 in India’s pharmaceutical market, have inked an agreement that opens India’s doors to Semiotic’s carbohydrate microchip, aka glycochip, which is said to be able to quantify glycan-bonding proteins,  announced  the website of RVC, Russia’s fund of funds for innovation. Semiotic is a portfolio company of the RVC Biofund, the investment arm to support biomed and biotech projects.

India considers drug testing labs in each state

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

India may house drug testing laboratories in each state under an INR17.5 billion ($270 million) plan to shore up quality. The Indian Express newspaper said the aim is to have at least one dedicated drug testing laboratory in every state, with 10 states currently not equipped with any testing services for drugs, including the capital New Delhi and the heavily populated state of West Bengal. The state does have a referral laboratory but no testing facilities.

As China pumps up drug exports, FDA worries about inspections

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

Expectations that the U.S. FDA is ready to take a harder look at products from China, mirroring efforts seen in India in the past few years, has brought the shortage of inspection manpower for drug manufacturing in China into sharper focus.

08 October 2015

Celtaxsys Begins US Enrollment for Phase 2 Trial of Acebilustat Anti-Inflammatory Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis

Celtaxsys, a clinical stage drug development company focused on advancing care for patients suffering from orphan inflammatory diseases, announced today the commencement of the US arm of an international phase 2 clinical trial for its flagship compound, acebilustat, in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The study will be conducted at approximately 60 sites inthe United States and European Union, with the EU sites anticipated to begin enrollment early 2016. 

Drug price hikes a tried-and-true strategy for who's who of Big Pharma

Carly Helfand / FiercePharma

harma watchers know that price increases on drugs are a common occurrence. So why has it taken until now for one of pharma's go-to strategies to spark public outcry? For starters, neither doctors nor patients usually have a good sense of a drug's wholesale price, The Wall Street Journal notes. 

Two technical universities work on new data visualization for medicine

Marchmont Innovation News

Researchers from the St. Petersburg Peter the Great Polytechnic University and the Tomsk Polytechnic University are undertaking a joint project aimed at developing a brand new data visualization and storage technology for cardiac case records in clinics and hospitals, the St. Pete university announced. 

Helping patients in times of need

John Castellani / PhRMA

When Hurricane Katrina hit, the lack of communication between public health officials and the private sector, which controls most of the biopharmaceutical supply chain system slowed.  This gap hindered efforts to deliver medications to patients in need.  From the disaster, which marked its ten year anniversary in August, PhRMA, BIO, partners in the biopharmaceutical industry and the non-profit sector spearheaded the creation of Rx Response to streamline communication and tackle medicine delivery problems without delay or unnecessary phone chains. 

What Makes a Good Patient Advocacy Strategy in Russia and CIS?

Nick Hicks / Pharmaceutical Executive

As growth in traditional markets continues to flatten, firms are shifting more towards emerging regions like Russia and the CIS as fundamental growth drivers. Despite sanctions, the Russian Pharmaceutical market remains attractive being one of the fastest-growing in the world, with annual growth of 9% with a projected value of 21 billion dollars in 2019. There are large unmet medical needs. Improved diagnostics will lead to better detection of non-communicable diseases and life style disorders, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

MIPT offers supersensitive biochip to help develop new drugs

Marchmont Innovation News

Scientists at the nanooptics and plasmonics lab of MIPT, one of Russia’s most renowned tech universities, have used graphene oxide to make a supersensitive biosensor. The sensor may help develop new drugs and vaccines, the MIPT website announced.

Devices Market in the First Six Months of 2015: Legal Highlights

Anna Maximenko, Elena Klutchareva / The CEE Legal Matters magazine

Generally, 2014 was quite a challenging year for the Russian economy. Growing tension between Russia and Western countries and the “sanctions war” undermined Russia’s economic development and had a serious impact on the Russian Government’s domestic policy.