Drug discovery and development

EMA outlines steps towards ethical use of medicines in animal testing

The European Medicines Agency has published its first report on how it is encouraging drug companies to use alternatives to animal testing in all stages of product development and manufacture.…

Zika vaccine development: two years on from the outbreak

Two years after the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, researchers have made good progress in developing vaccines against the disease, with some candidates now in phase II trials. However, the brief nature of the outbreak is…

New tool predicts risk of drug turning toxic in the body

Researchers have developed a quantitative risk assessment tool to predict whether a drug will turn into a toxic version of itself, or lose efficacy, once it has entered the body…

Artificial Intelligence: will it change the way drugs are discovered?

The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to invest in artificial intelligence (AI), with many large pharmaceutical companies partnering with AI start-ups in 2017 in order to develop better diagnostics or biomarkers, to identify drug targets and to design new drugs. But when will the first AI-designe…

Migraine days cut by almost half in phase III trial

The number of migraine days per month has been significantly cut in people with episodic migraine, results from a phase III trial of the monoclonal antibody erenumab have found.…

Decision making in pharmacy

Basic Skills in Interpreting Laboratory Data, 6th edition, by Mary Lee…

Innovation in acne treatment is long overdue but the treatment pipeline looks promising

Current treatments for acne are effective but regimens are complex and side effects are common. Better understanding of the pathology of acne is leading to identification of new, safer, treatment targets, and dermatologists and researchers in the field are excited about the pipeline.…

Atypical antipsychotic causes weight gain by targeting serotonin receptor 2C

Study suggests that serotonin 2C receptor agonists may be useful in preventing metabolic side effects associated with taking atypical antipsychotics.…

Sixty years of the combined oral contraceptive pill

The first combined oral contraceptive pill was licensed for ‘menstrual irregularities’ in 1957, and contraception three years later. Since then, millions of women have taken ‘the pill’.…

Research identifies potential target for treating inflammatory skin diseases

Targeting Ripk1 could be an effective treatment for skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, a study finds.…