PHARMA LITERATI

Colorcon Inc . and The Dow Chemical Company announced an agreement to broaden the existing Controlled Release Alliance between the two companies. While the Alliance currently provide controlled release technologies from Dow Pharma & Food Solutions, a business unit of Dow, to customers, effective January 1, 2017, it will be extended to include Dow’s advanced technology based pharmaceutical excipients. The Alliance has served the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, since announced in July 2007, providing customized solutions, products and support services for pharmaceutical product development. The addition of new technologies into the Alliance product portfolio expands the existing relationship between Colorcon and Dow and further enables formulation and development of fast-growing pharmaceutical applications, beyond the existing controlled release scope. “ This new phase reaffirms the long-standing commitment between the two companies to grow together and leverage the...

Zydus Cadila , a global healthcare provider, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, one of the world´s largest pharmaceutical companies, announced a partnership to develop vaccine for  chikungunya , an emerging infectious disease. The broad-based agreement includes early stage development to the final commercialization of the vaccine against chickungunya. There is currently no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat this virus infection. “ By partnering with Takeda on this very important research and development initiative and leveraging our development capabilities, we will be taking an all important step to prevent the disease burden which is highly prevalent in developing countries and causes suffering and disability ,” said  Pankaj R. Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Zydus group . Chikungunya has been identified in over 60 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the US. “ Our belief is that chikungunya can be prevented by vaccines, and that a...

University of Findlay, Ohio has now collaborated with pharmacy colleges in India to widen the scope of pharmaceutical care in the country. At the Manipal University and St. Peter's Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Warangal , University of Findlay’s College of Pharmacy has initiated global expert lectures and student exchange programmes where candidates get the required exposure about the advanced pharmacy practices in US. These include creation and maintenance of electronic prescription dispensing records and monitoring Narrow Therapeutic Index Drugs across patient population that can be replicated back home. The objective of this initiative is to develop a pharmacy service platform to open up job opportunities where pharmacists could chip in their expertise to ensure safe medication practices. A lot needs to be done in India in pharmacy care. To begin with, the accessibility of electronic medical records across healthcare providers will be a big game changer in India...