Over the past twelve years, the Centre for Medicines Research has held a series of Workshops on a number of topics related to the drug discovery and development process. The major objective of these Workshops has been to provide an international forum for regula tory, academic and industry representatives to debate together, and suggest solutions to, specific problems. The meeting reported in this volume represents a departure from this approach, in that the par ticipants were drawn largely from the pharmaceutical industry. Senior clinicians, pharmacologists and toxicologists from companies in Europe, the USA and Japan met in May 1994 to discuss a scientific rationale for the conduct of toxicity studies to support the clinical development of new medicines, and to begin to work towards an industry consensus. Achievement of such a consensus is seen as an important step in the process leading towards international harmon isation of the recommendations on the timing of toxicity studies in relation to clinical trials."

The aim of this volume is to review the state-of-the-art in analytical voltammetry with regard to theory and instrumentation, and show how these relate to the analysis of inorganic, organometallic, organic and biological molecules. Modern voltammetric techniques have practical applications in biological, pharmaceutical and environmental chemistry. The growing importance of voltammetry in the development of modified electrodes and biological electrodes and chemical and biological sensors is also highlighted.

Penicillins and cephalosporins have a long history in combating bacterial infections. Despite new infectious diseases and occurring resistance, beta-lactam antibiotics will for many years to come continue to play a prominent role in our therapeutic arsenal. This book covers the industrial development of the chemical and biochemical processes used to manufacture these products, as well as looking ahead to possible future processes. The interplay between synthetic organic chemistry with the understanding and application of enzymes, modeling of fermentation processes and integration through (bio-) chemical process engineering is illustrated. In-depth scientific approaches to biocatalysis and biocatalyst development including enzyme kinetics, enzyme crystal studies and semi-rational enzyme mutations are also presented. Metabolic pathway analysis and modeling of fermentation process are treated as well as molecular precision in synthetic approaches to beta-lactams, their precursors and derivatives. Process technology studies including new reactor concepts, possible short-cut routes and improved down-stream-processing methods complete a broad view on the scope and limitations of the presently developed industrial processes including an intriguing insight into future process possibilities. This book represents an excellent case study on the transformation of traditional, stoAchiometric, organic synthesis and classical fermentations into modern (bio-) catalysis and biosynthesis based on insights in metabolic pathways and enzyme actions.

This book details current developments in all natural polymers, with a focus on animal and microbial polysaccharides. The book examines, compares, and contrasts the efficiency of plant and algae based natural polymers in inducing immune reactions. Additionally, the book details the safety and toxicity profiles with respective regulations.

The volume sheds new light on role of gut dysbiosis in cancer and immunological diseases and their clinical manifestations. Contributions in the volume discuss about the gut microbiota as a therapeutic target and the role of probiotics in its management. The volume explores application of probiotics in the treatment of various cancers viz. colorectal, gastric, lung, and breast cancer and immunological diseases. The volume comprises of chapters from expert contributors organized into various important themes which include, introduction, relationship between gut microbiota and disease condition, mechanisms involved, clinical and in vivo status, conclusion and future directions. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing recent and innovative insight for scholars and researchers with an interest in probiotics and its applications in cancer and immunological diseases.

This thesis mainly describes the development of a screening process for a mirror-image library of chiral natural products. It demonstrates how, by using mirror-image proteins for the screening of available natural products, unavailable mirror-image isomers of natural products can be screened in a mirror process. Moreover, as mirror-image isomers including target proteins and natural products are mainly prepared by means of chemical synthesis, the screening strategy presented here suggests the importance of organic chemistry. Natural products are commonly used as valuable resources for drug discovery. However, as they are mostly produced as single enantiomeric forms, researchers have tested o nly natural products bearing one stereochemistry available in nature. As natural products and their enantiomers have identical physicochemical properties and different biological activities, mirror-image isomers of natural products are promising candidates for novel medicinal resources. In an effort to identify anticancer agents from the mirror-image library, chemical protein syntheses of some target oncoproteins, MDM2, MDMX and Grb2, and their applications to the chemical array screening process were achieved. In the course of this process the NP843 enantiomer, which is the enantiomer of an -tocopherol derivative, was successfully identified as a novel MDM2-p53 interaction inhibitor. These results clearly show that a mirror-image library of chiral natural products represents an invaluable medicinal resource. Accordingly, the chemistry-based screening strategy described in this thesis will be of great interest to a broad range of chemists involved in natural product, medicinal, and synthetic chemistry.

Over the past years, the chem(o)informatics field has further evolved and new application areas have opened up, for example, in the broadly defined area of chemical biology. In Chemoinformatics and Computational Chemical Biology, leading investigators bring together a detailed series of reviews and methods including, among others, system-directed approaches using small molecules, the design of target-focused compound libraries, the study of molecular selectivity, and the systematic analysis of target-ligand interactions. Furthermore, the book delves into similarity methods, machine learning, probabilistic approaches, fragment-based methods, as well as topics that go beyond the current chemoinformatics spectrum, such as knowledge-based modeling of G protein-coupled receptor structures and computational design of siRNA libraries. As a volume in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series, this collection provides detailed descriptions and implementation advice that are exceedingly relevant for basic researchers and practitioners in this highly interdisciplinary research and development area. Cutting-edge and unambiguous, Chemoinformatics and Computational Chemical Biology serves as an ideal guide for experts and newcomers alike to this vital and dynamic field of study.

This volume provides readers with the basic principles and fundamentals of extrusion technology and a detailed description of the practical applications of a variety of extrusion processes, including various pharma grade extruders. In addition, the downstream production of films, pellets and tablets, for example, for oral and other delivery routes, are presented and discussed utilizing melt extrusion. This book is the first of its kind that discusses extensively the well-developed science of extrusion technology as applied to pharmaceutical drug product development and manufacturing. By covering a wide range of relevant topics, the text brings together all technical information necessary to develop and market pharmaceutical dosage forms that meet current quality and regulatory requirements. As extrusion technology continues to be refined further, usage of extruder systems and the array of applications will continue to expand, but the core technologies will remain the same.

"Nanotechnology in Dermatology" is the first book of its kind to address all of the important and rapidly growing aspects of nanotechnology as it relates to dermatology. In the last few years there has been an explosion in research and development for products and devices related to nanotechnology, including numerous applications for consumers, physicians, patients, and industry. Applications are underway in medicine and dermatology for the early detection, diagnosis, and targeted therapy of disease, and nanodesigned materials and devices are expected to be faster, smaller, more powerful, more efficient, and more versatile than their traditional counterparts.

Written by experts working in this exciting field, "Nanotechnology in Dermatology" specifically addresses nanotechnology in consumer skin care products, in the diagnosis of skin disease, in the treatment of skin disease, and the overall safety of nanotechnology. The book also discusses future trends of this ever-growing and changing field, providing dermatologists, pharmaceutical companies, and consumer cosmetics companies with a clear understanding of the advantages and challenges of nanotechnology today."

Combination products are therapeutic and diagnostic products that combine drugs, devices, and/ or biological products. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and a device; a biological product and a device; a drug and a biological product; or a drug, device and a biological product.” Examples include prefilled syringes, pen injectors, autoinjectors, inhalers, transdermal patches, drug-eluting stents, and kits containing drug administration devices co-packaged with drugs and/or biological products. This handbook provides the most up-to-date information on the development of combination products, from the technology involved to successful delivery to market. The authors present important and up-to-the-minute pre- and post-market reviews of combination product regulations, guidance, considerations and best practices. This handbook: • Brings clarity of understanding for combination products guidance and regulations • Reviews the current state-of-the-art considerations and best practices spanning the combination product lifecycle, pre-market through post-market • Reviews medical product classification and assignment issues faced by global regulatory authorities and industry The editor is a recognized international Combination Products and Medical Device expert with over 35 years of industry experience and has an outstanding team of contributors. Endorsed by AAMI – Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.

Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery describes the bioinformatic approaches and techniques employed along the pipeline of drug development from genes to proteins to drugs. The book focuses on gene microarray analysis and techniques for target identification and validation. In addition, clinical applications showing how the analysis can be used for prognostication and diagnosis are described. The second section focuses on protein analysis, including target validation and identification using modern proteomic analysis as well as protein modeling techniques. The third section discusses chemoinformatics, including virtual screening and how to computationally approach chemical space.

Fullerene Collision Reactions provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art of fullerene collision studies. The book begins with introductory chapters that provide the necessary background in experimental and theoretical techniques. This is followed by experimental results and theoretical calculations covering the wide range of available gas-phase fullerene collision experiments.
Emphasis is placed on gas-phase molecular beam experiments where reaction, fragmentation and charge transfer cross sections have been determined covering collision energy ranges from thermal to MeV. Atomic, ionic, electronic, cluster and surface collisions involving fullerenes are covered in depth accompanied by a clear presentation of the most commonly applied experimental and theoretical techniques.
This book will be an invaluable resource for senior undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers working in the field.

The topics chosen for this volume were selected because they are some of the current development or technological issues facing drug development project teams. They regard the practical considerations for assessment of selected special development populations. For example, they include characterization of drug disposition in pregnant subjects, for measuring arrhythmic potential, for analysis tumor growth modeling, and for disease progression modeling. Practical considerations for metabolite safety testing, transporter assessments, Phase 0 testing, and development and execution of drug interaction programs reflect current regulatory topics meant to address enhancement of both safety assessment and early decision-making during new candidate selection. Important technologies like whole body autoradiography, digital imaging and dried blood spot sample collection methods are introduced, as both have begun to take a more visible role in pharmacokinetic departments throughout the industry.

The biotechnology/biopharmaceutical sector has tremendously grown which led to the invention of engineered antibodies such as Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), Bispecific T-cell engager (BITES), Dual Variable Domain (DVD) antibodies, and fusion proteins that are currently being used as therapeutic agents for immunology, oncology and other disease conditions. Regulatory agencies have raised the bar for the development and manufacture of antibody-based products, expecting to see the use of Quality by Design (QbD) elements demonstrating an in-depth understanding of product and process based on sound science. Drug delivery systems have become an increasingly important part of the therapy and most biopharmaceuticals for self-administration are being marketed as combination products. A survey of the market indicates that there is a strong need for a new book that will provide "one stop shopping" for the latest information and knowledge of the scientific and engineering advances made over the last few years in the area of biopharmaceutical product development. The new book entitled Development of Biopharmaceutical Drug Device Products is a reference text for scientists and engineers in the biopharmaceutical industry, academia or regulatory agencies. With insightful chapters from experts in the field, this new book reviews first principles, covers recent technological advancements and provides case studies and regulatory strategies relating to the development and manufacture of antibody-based products. It covers topics such as the importance of early preformulation studies during drug discovery to influence molecular selection for development, formulation strategies for new modalities, and the analytical techniques used to characterize them. It also addresses important considerations for later stage development such as the development of robust formulations and processes, including process engineering and modeling of manufacturing unit operations, the design of analytical comparability studies, and characterization of primary containers (pre-filled syringes and vials).Finally, the latter half of the book reviews key considerations to ensure the development and approval of a patient-centered delivery system design. This involves the evolving regulatory framework with perspectives from both the US and EU industry experts, the role of international standards, design control/risk management, human factors and its importance in the product development and regulatory approval process, as well as review of the risk-based approach to bridging between devices used in clinical trials and the to-be-marketed device. Finally, case studies are provided throughout.The typical readership would have biology and/or engineering degrees and would include researchers, scientific leaders, industry specialists and technology developers working in the biopharmaceutical field.

At a time when it is becoming usual for medicines to be developed for a global market and pharmaceutical companies are endeavouring to expedite the drug development process, Regulatory authorities are concentrating on improving their efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, it is not surprising that questions are being asked as to how performance might be measured and compared between different authorities who are now often in receipt of dossiers that have been submitted to several agencies at the same time. Issues such as "what target should be set for the review of new medicines?" and "how can quality be assured?" are now considered to be of critical importance. The 12th CMR International Workshop, held in January 1997, provided the opportunity for regulatory authority and industry personnel from Europe, North America, Australia and Japan to openly discuss experiences and exchange views on how to improve the review process. The proceedings of this meeting provide a comprehensive overview of the current review process in different countries and the need for performance measures and targets. This volume summarizes the many suggestions that were debated at the workshop, and includes chapters on measuring performance, and on the integration of quality into the review process.

In this book we present recent studies that have been carried out on some widely used medicinal plants. The need for new and alternative treatments stem from the lack of efficiency of existing remedies for certain illnesses. We have compiled information that may be useful to researchers in their quest to develop new drugs.

A particular issue for biopharmaceuticals that has not been addressed comprehensively in any book, is the potential of an immune response to the biopharmaceutical product. That is, the human body marks the drug as a foreign body, and develops antibodies against the drug. These antibodies may be relatively harmless, but may also cross-react with the endogenous compound, causing autoimmunogenicity. Recent adverse experiences in Europe with Janssen-Ortho's blockbuster product Eprex has increased the attention towards potential immunogenicity of biopharmaceuticals, above all from the regulatory agencies. This book is intended to give a broad overview of the current state-of-the-art regarding the immune response to biopharmaceuticals. The chapters range from an overview of the immune system and factors that may trigger the immune system, via detection of antibodies and clinical implications, to various case examples and the regulatory view on immunogenicity.

This book illustrates numerous statistical practices that are commonly used by medical researchers, but which have severe flaws that may not be obvious. For each example, it provides one or more alternative statistical methods that avoid misleading or incorrect inferences being made. The technical level is kept to a minimum to make the book accessible to non-statisticians. At the same time, since many of the examples describe methods used routinely by medical statisticians with formal statistical training, the book appeals to a broad readership in the medical research community.

Transporters in Drug Development examines how membrane transporters can be dealt with in academic-industrial drug discovery and pharmaceutical development as well as from a regulatory perspective. The book describes methods and examples of in vitro characterization of single transporters in the intestines, liver and kidneys as well as characterization of substrate overlap between various transporters. Furthermore, probes and biomarkers are suggested for studies of the transporters' impact on the pharmacokinetics of drug substrates/candidates interacting on transporters. The challenges of translating in vitro observed interaction of transporters into in vivo relevance are explored, and the book highlights perspectives of applying targeted proteomics and mechanistic modeling in this process.

After 13 years there are new areas to discuss and more recent trials to be included. Good clinical practice; evaluation of quality of life; measurement of the benefit: risk comparison; determination of cost- effectiveness and cost utility; stopping rules for trials; meta-analysis and subgroup analysis are all new sections. The references are expanded from 305 to 512 and include the recent advances in trial design, such as the n-of-1 trials and megatrials, and up-to-date examples to illustrate the points made in the 20 chapters.

Drug research and discovery are of critical importance in human health care. Computational approaches for drug lead discovery and optimization have proven successful in many recent research programs. These methods have grown in their effectiveness not only because of improved understanding of the basic science - the biological events and molecular interactions that define a target for therapeutic intervention - but also because of advances in algorithms, representations, and mathematical procedures for studying such processes. This volume surveys some of those advances. A broad landscape of high-profile topics in computer-assisted molecular design (CAMD) directed to drug design are included. Subject areas represented in the volume include receptor-based applications such as binding energy approximations, molecular docking, and de novo design; non-receptor-based applications such as molecular similarity; molecular dynamics simulations; solvation and partitioning of a solute between aqueous and nonpolar media; graph theory; non-linear multidimensional optimization, processing of information obtained from simulation studies, global optimization and search strategies, and performance enhancement through parallel computing.

Learn how AI and data science are upending the worlds of biology and medicine In Silico Dreams: How Artificial Intelligence and Biotechnology Will Create the Medicines of the Future delivers an illuminating and fresh perspective on the convergence of two powerful technologies: AI and biotech. Accomplished genomics expert, executive, and author Brian Hilbush offers readers a brilliant exploration of the most current work of pioneering tech giants and biotechnology startups who have already started disrupting healthcare. The book provides an in-depth understanding of the sources of innovation that are driving the shift in the pharmaceutical industry away from serendipitous therapeutic discovery and toward engineered medicines and curative therapies. In this fascinating book, you'll discover: An overview of the rise of data science methods and the paradigm shift in biology that led to the in silico revolution An outline of the fundamental breakthroughs in AI and deep learning and their applications across medicine A compelling argument for the notion that AI and biotechnology tools will rapidly accelerate the development of therapeutics A summary of innovative breakthroughs in biotechnology with a focus on gene editing and cell reprogramming technologies for therapeutic development A guide to the startup landscape in AI in medicine, revealing where investments are poised to shape the innovation base for the pharmaceutical industry Perfect for anyone with an interest in scientific topics and technology, In Silico Dreams also belongs on the bookshelves of decision-makers in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, technology, venture capital, and government.

This book is devoted to the graphics of patient data: good graphs enabling straight-forward and intuitive interpretation, efficient creation, and straightforward interpretation. We focus on easy access to graphics of patient data: the intention is to show a large variety of graphs for different phases of drug development, together with a description of what the graph shows, what type of data it uses, and what options there are. The main aim is to provide inspiration in form of a graphics cookbook. Many graphs provide creative ideas about what can be done. The book is not intended to be technical. It introduces general principles of good visualization to make readers understand the concepts, but the main focus is on the creativity and usefulness: readers are enabled to browse through the book to get ideas of how their own data can be analyzed graphically.

For additional information visit Editor s companion website: http: //www.elmo.ch/doc/life-science-graphics/

This book studies the production of indole alkaloids in the important medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don, commonly known as periwinkle. The anticancer alkaloids, viz. vinblastine and vincristine, are mainly present in the leaves of C. roseus and inhibit the growth of cancer cells by hindering the formation of mitotic apparatus during cell division. Further, vinblastine helps increase the chance of surviving childhood leukemia while vincristine is used to treat Hodgkin's disease. Great efforts have been made to produce these alkaloids at a large scale by the culture of plant cells. In view of this worldwide demand for commercial use, this book explores how to maximize the production of anticancer alkaloids from C. roseus. This reference book will be helpful for research students, teachers, ethnobotanists, pharmacologists and herbal growers who have a strong interest in this anticancer medicinal plant of paramount importance.