Research Areas

Well, one issue down, a second one ready for prime time, and several more in various stages of preparation. And already we’re seeing changes. But then, whenever you try to accomplish any venture in the drug discovery arena—be it a new pill, instrument, or magazine—you have to be ready to move as the market moves.

Welcome to the first monthly issue of Drug Discovery News, a trade publication like no other in the drug discovery field. Over the past four months, it has been a pleasure immersing myself in the industry, all while attempting not to drown in the deluge of information. From the floors of Lab Automation 2005 in San Jose, to Pitttcon in Orlando and back to my office in Portland, Maine, my conversations with you have yielded a new vocabulary which only yield blank looks from my family at the end of the day when I start waxing poetic about RNAi, GPCRs, HPLC or MALDI MS.

With a rapidly aging population that urgently requires sophisticated medical devices and newer drugs, robotics systems

In mid-February, Affinium Pharmaceuticals announced initial success of its Galapagos compound screening program in the identification of the first potential drug targeted against a novel bacterial pathway in almost 40 years.

SciTegic Inc. announced in March an independent software vendor (ISV) partner program that is will allow the ISV’s tools and applications to run seamlessly on SciTegic’s flagship Pipeline Pilot informatics system.

Since 1986, Qiagen has developed and marketed a range of products for academic and industrial markets, including life science research, genomics, gene-based drug discovery, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics, genetic vaccination, and gene therapy market.

The biological assay market got a little smaller in February with the announcement by Illumina that it had signed a definitive agreement to merge with and eventually take over CyVera Corp.

In February, X-ray crystallography specialist Syrrx announced that it had agreed to merge with Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceutical to become a subsidiary of Takeda American Holding

To push the frontiers of diabetes and obesity treatments, the US-based headquarters of Australian RNAi specialist Benitec recently signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, based in Sydney, Australia.

Instrumentation and discovery informatics provider Symyx Technologies Inc. announced in late February its intention to acquire Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Synthematix, a provider of organic synthesis reaction software systems.