Poland's food supplements market is growing at a rampant 30 per
cent but may be hamstrung by moves to classify a range of food
supplements as drugs, according to a report from a market
researcher there.
The active constituents in many botanical products varies greatly,
leading to anomalies in efficaciousness which damage the whole
sector, according to UK researchers.
A starch-based film coating for nutraceuticals which can be
tailored to manufacturer's needs is being developed through a
strategic partnership by Roquette and Biogrund.
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.
Japanese herbal medicine company Tsumura is to establish a new
method to evaluate the efficacy of herbal medicines based on
proteome analysis, according to a report.
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.
Plant extract supplier Unigen Pharmaceuticals is to work with a
University of Panama research centre to identify lead plant-derived
compounds that could be used in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical,
cosmeceutical and functional food products.
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...
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.
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.
Australia's second biggest pharmaceuticals manufacturer, which also
makes complementary medicines and vitamin supplements, has had its
licence revoked after the country's medicine watchdog reported a
badly rundown plant...
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...
Phytopharm, the UK-based botanical medicines company, has entered
into an agreement with the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and
Ageing (OPTIMA) to develop a dementia treatment based on an ancient
Asian plant.
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.
