Consumers are being warned by FDA to steer clear of three red
yeast products being sold on the Internet for fear they may
contain an unauthorized drug that is hazardous to health.
Canadian supplier Advitech has announced it is taking its psoriasis
product Dermylex to France and Belgium through a distribution
agreement with a pharmaceutical corporation, Iprad Santé S.A.
Naturex is strengthening its presence on the European plant extract
scene with the acquisition of Italy's Hammer Pharma for €10m - a
move that also marks in earnest its entry to the world of
pharmaceutical ingredients.
Swedish biotech BioGaia has signed an exclusive agreement with a
major OTC and pharmaceutical company for the distribution of
probiotic tablets and oral health products in Indonesia.
The FDA has exerted post-market regulatory muscle by testing the
contents of several sexual health supplements sold via the Internet
in a first-of-its-kind survey and subsequently issued a warning, in
which it calls them illegal drugs.
The strategy of bringing new ingredients to market as
nutraceuticals, with a view to pharmaceutical launch at a later
date, is helping expand supplement-makers' toolkit - as well as
providing biotechs with a revenue stream earlier.
Some biotech companies are treating their nutraceutical activities
as a cash cow to fund pharmaceutical R&D; as research yield
results and prompts a re-focus on the lucrative pharma market,
mature nutraceutical businesses are...
A Dutch consortium setting out develop biomedical materials to
improve medical care and patients' quality of life may also benefit
the supplements sector through research into capsules for
controlled release of active substances...
The University of Illinois at Chicago's (UIC) NAPRALERT, the
world's largest database on herbs and medicinal plant research, is
now available on-line, providing easier access to this goldmine of
herbal information.
Perrigo is planning to develop and market store brand nutritional
products using SCOLR Pharma's proprietary controlled delivery
technology (CDT) drug delivery platform.
Swiss research institute VitaPlant is embarking on a research
project to develop six new plant extracts, in partnership with US
natural products supplier EuroPharma. Jess Halliday speaks
to Dr Bernd Bueter about plans to market the...
UK dosage form specialist BioProgress gave the first insight into
its much-anticipated strategic review yesterday, just over a month
after the departure of former CEO Graham Hind, reports Phil
Taylor.
Almost half the arthritis patients surveyed by UK doctors were
using herbal remedies but many were unaware of potential
interactions with conventional drugs, reports Dominique
Patton.
UK-based Micap has bought the German microencapsulation firm Rendel
& Scherer for around €1 million in a bid to grow its sales in a
new market, reports Dominique Patton.
Cerestar Food & Pharma Specialties Europe has launched an
excipient that it claims allows tablets to be produced using lower
compression force, which should result in reduced wear and tear on
tabletting machinery and operational...
Scottish drug delivery and encapsulation specialist Encap has
invested approximately £1.2 million (€1.7m)in new premises in order
to boost its manufacturing capacity by 50 per cent.
Canadian company Natural Factors believes it has set a new
benchmark in the research and testing of its echinacea-based
product, Echinamide, Philippa Nuttall reports.
A traditional Indian herbal, long believed to lower cholesterol
levels, may interfere with nearly 60 per cent of prescription
drugs, including the popular anti-cholesterol drugs statins,
according to recent research.
The Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products - set up under the new
EU legislation designed to investigate the safety of herbal
medicines - is holding its inaugural meeting in London.
Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda will sell off its stakes in
five non-core joint ventures, including the vitamins business that
it operates with Germany's BASF, according to reports.
Dutch specialty chemicals group Noviant has developed a certified
GM-free disintegrant for use in tablets, allowing supplement makers
to continue supplying a full range of products without having to
add labels required under new European...
Evidence that the herbal St John's wort may cause important
interactions with conventional drugs, or even drug resistance, is
poor, say researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.
Herbal companies looking for new products may not need to go far to
find new medicinal plants, according to a review, which finds that
weeds have produced more drugs and natural remedies than tropical
plants found in the rainforest.
Manufacturers took a closer look at the rules governing botanical
extracts in the US, Europe and Canada at the industry's first
integrative medicine and natural healthcare exhibition this month.
Calls heard for a common set of...
The growing use of dietary supplements has caused alarm in recent
months among the medical community who fear dangerous interactions
with prescription medicines. But a new study concludes that most
potential drug-supplement interactions...
Women's use of all medications, including herbal supplements, is
higher than anticipated, and they're unlikely to tell their health
care providers about the medications they take, according to a
University of Minnesota researcher.
The real amount of active ingredient in over-the-counter St John's
wort 'varies greatly' and can be up to 114 per cent of the amount
on the label, according to a new study in the Journal of the
Science of Food and Agriculture.
India's largest pharmaceutical firm Ranbaxy Laboratories has
expanded its herbals range with the launch yesterday of three new
products, to be marketed under the 'New Age Herbals' name.
Growing sales of herbal medicines are threatening to wipe out up to
a fifth of the plant species on which the industry depends, a new
report will claim. It also accuses the herbal medicines industry of
doing nothing to stop the problem.
The use of herbal medicines entails risks, but probably fewer than
with synthetic drugs, argues a British Medicial Journal
editorial out tomorrow. And failing to fund further studies on
herbals represents the biggest risk to consumers,...
Swedish private company Lipid Technologies Provider (LTP) yesterday
announced the signing of a substantial investment agreement with
DSM Venturing, part of the DSM Group headquartered in Heerlen, the
Netherlands.
Heart disease patients in the UK taking the blood thinning drug
warfarin have been warned to avoid cranberry juice, after reports
that the drink increases the drug's potency.
One in 20 people are taking potentially dangerous combinations of
herbal and prescription medicines, said researchers this week,
suggesting that health professionals need to increase their herbal
knowledge to respond to the boom in...
The herbal and pharmaceutical industries should invest more time
and resources in studying herb-drug interactions, suggest
researchers in the UK, who found 'a widespread lack of interest' in
this area from both industries...
Researchers question the efficacy of the hormone DHEA, taken in
supplement form to help treat cancer and Alzheimer's disease, in a
new study showing it had no effects on cognition in Alzheimer's
patients.
Experts on medicinal plants are to gather in London next month to
discuss the potential and current hurdles for the herbal market and
the development of novel medicines.
Leading orthopaedic surgeons and pharmacologists have confirmed
their backing for chondroitin sulphate supplements as a way of
managing joint discomfort, according to one supplement
manufacturer.
Around a quarter of all prescription drugs sold in the United
States, Canada and Europe contain active ingredients derived from
plants, claims a new report. Global over-the-counter sales of
plant-derived drugs are estimated at $40...
A botanicals research project has been launched by ingredients
supplier Unigen Pharmaceuticals and the consultants Botanical
Liaisons to discover new plants that could be used in natural
medicines.
The health unit of speciality chemicals manufacturer Croda
Chemicals Europe is to expand lipid production in the UK, following
increased market demand for high purity, high potency lipids in
nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, it...
Israel-based company Herbamed has launched Ultrasome (Emulsome), a
new drug delivery technology, specifically targeted at water
insoluble nutraceuticals.
A Hebrew University parasitologist claims to have shown that a
natural head lice remedy is more effective than the commonly-used
conventional medication. The study is published in the October
issue of the Journal of the Israel Medical...
Evolutec, the British biotechnology company which develops novel
therapeutic products from parasites, is to begin Phase I and II
clinical trials with rEV131, its treatment for allergic and
inflammatory diseases.
Cannabis-based medicine could be on the UK market as early as 2003,
according to GW Pharmaceuticals, the UK company developing
cannabis-based prescription medicines, which this week released
results from four Phase III clinical trials.
Washington-based biopharmaceutical company SCOLR has said that it
has completed a biotrial providing Proof of Concept for its Self
Correcting Oral Linear Release drug delivery systems in human
subjects.
A tropical daisy could be the answer for patients with skin
disorders, according to research presented at the British
Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester, England this week.
Researchers hope that the plant, which is a traditional...
