NEWS UCB and Oxford University establish new R&D partnership
People on the Move
New Technical Officer at ReFaC
UCB Pharma and Oxford University have established an agreement to collaborate on pharmaceutical research, enabling their scientists to work together on the development of innovative medicines to treat diseases in the areas of immunology and neurology. UCB said the combined resources and expertise of the company and the university would give “the best possible chance” of turning
innovative research into new medicines for patients, an area identified as a priority in the UK Government’s recent Strategy for UK Life Sciences.
The partnership will be funded by a contribution of £3.6 million from UCB and will run over three years.
A steering committee of UCB and Oxford University
representatives will oversee the collaboration via regular meetings
EntreMed to open China office EntreMed, Inc, a clinical-stage
The REACH Facilitation Company, ReFaC, has appointed Dr Virginia Gretton as its new Technical Officer. Dr Gretton was formerly Regulatory Manager at Harlan Laboratories Limited, where she was involved with all aspects of REACH registration and compliance. In addition to her involvement in regulatory compliance in the chemical sector, Dr Gretton has held posts in academia and managed clinical research projects. She holds a DPhil in Chemistry from the University of York, a BSc in Combined Science, and a post- graduate certificate in REACH management.
Vice President of Hovione Particle Design Business Unit
Hovione has appointed Dr Colin Minchom as Vice President of its Particle Design Business Unit. Dr Minchom was most recently with Patheon, where he held the position of Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development Services for North America. Based in East Windsor, New Jersey, USA, he will report to Guy Villax, CEO of Hovione. Prior to Patheon, he was Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cerebrus Ltd, a privately held UK pharmaceutical company, and he also previously held positions of increasing scientific and management responsibility at Eli Lilly and ER Squibb.
pharmaceutical company developing cancer therapeutics, has initiated plans to establish an office in China to facilitate the company’s drug development and clinical trials in that country. In addition, EntreMed and Selected Value Therapeutics, LLC (SVT) have terminated their agreement regarding SVT’s right to enter into a licence agreement
to develop and commercialise in China and certain of its territories EntreMed’s lead compound, ENMD-2076. SVT will not retain any rights to the compound. ENMD-2076 is a selective angiogenic kinase inhibitor currently completing a multi- centre Phase 2 study in ovarian cancer and has completed several Phase 1 studies in solid tumours, multiple myeloma, and
to identify and monitor new projects. Between five and ten projects will be selected for investigation over the course of the agreement.
UCB’s UK premises are located in Slough, Berkshire and house the company’s immunology research hub, which focuses on a range of conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease and osteoporosis.
leukemia. It has been shown to inhibit a distinct profile of angiogenic tyrosine kinase targets in addition to the Aurora A kinase.
Aurora kinases are key regulators of mitosis (cell division), and are often over- expressed in human cancers. ENMD-2076 also targets the VEGFR, Flt-3 and FGFR3 kinases which have been shown to play important roles in the pathology of several cancers.
Domain Therapeutics receives schizophrenia project funding
The ATHOS project, which aims to develop new drug candidates and identify therapeutic targets for schizophrenia and is led by Domain Therapeutics, has been selected for French government funding. Total funding will amount to €5.1 million over three years and about 45 per cent of the ATHOS budget will be provided by central and regional government organisations, including a grant of €933,000 to
Domain Therapeutics. The funding comes from a French government fund, Fonds Unique Interministériel, the Alsace Region, and funding agency OSEO. The ATHOS project will focus on a single class of therapeutic targets, orphan GPCRs.
As well as Domain Therapeutics, the ATHOS consortium includes Prestwick Chemical, a medicinal chemistry
specialist, and the Brigitte Kieffer laboratory at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology, which also specialises in GPCRs. The Brigitte Kieffer laboratory will be in charge of mapping orphan GPCRs in the brain and obtaining appropriate animal models to validate targets for neuropsychiatric disorders. Prestwick Chemical will apply its expertise in optimising active compounds.
Almac expands commercial packaging operations with new US facility
The Pharma Services business unit of Almac is expanding its commercial packaging operations with a $10 million investment in a new 100,000 sq ft commercial facility at the company’s Audubon, Pennsylvania site in the USA. Almac has more than 30 years’ commercial packaging experience from its MHRA/FDA approved UK facilities and can now offer this expertise to US
14 sp2 Inter-Active March/April 2012
pharmaceutical companies from a local operation. Following completion of the evaluation and feasibility design work, refurbishment of the facility has commenced and systems handover is scheduled for the third quarter of 2012. Upon FDA approval, Almac will offer commercial primary and secondary packaging of tablets and capsules into bottles, blisters, wallets and hospital unit dose
formats, as well as secondary labeling and packaging of biopharmaceutical presentations such as vials and ampoules. Complementing these services are dedicated teams in pack design and artwork management and in-house tooling fabrication. The company will also offer warehousing in ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage facilities.
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