ABSTRACT
The emergence of biomarkers linking disease and treatment effects in a clear manner presents an opportunity to change the current drug development paradigm, which could lead to more cost-efficient and higher-quality clinical trials. This has raised the hopes of venture capital investors, who may be able to better navigate the stormy and risky sea of early-stage life science investments, to find a way out of the current funding crisis for novel, nonvalidated drugs and their clinical development. The following survey paints a snapshot of the current perception of biomarkers as a paradigm changer in the eyes of the venture capital community.
Subject(s)
Biomarkers , Drug Industry/economics , Parkinson Disease/economics , Data Collection , Humans , Parkinson Disease/diagnosis , Parkinson Disease/therapyABSTRACT
Bayer Corp, under license from Indena SpA, is developing BAY-59-8862, a taxane synthesized from 14beta-hydroxy-10-deacetylbaccatin III, for the potential treatment of cancer.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/adverse effects , Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology , Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy , Bridged-Ring Compounds/adverse effects , Bridged-Ring Compounds/pharmacology , Ovarian Neoplasms/drug therapy , Taxoids/adverse effects , Taxoids/pharmacology , Animals , Antineoplastic Agents/chemical synthesis , Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacokinetics , Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use , Antineoplastic Agents/toxicity , Bridged-Ring Compounds/chemical synthesis , Bridged-Ring Compounds/pharmacokinetics , Bridged-Ring Compounds/therapeutic use , Bridged-Ring Compounds/toxicity , Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic , Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Female , Humans , Structure-Activity Relationship , Taxoids/chemical synthesis , Taxoids/pharmacokinetics , Taxoids/therapeutic use , Taxoids/toxicityABSTRACT
The disease management of asthma - in particular severe and steroid-resistant asthma - remains a real and daily challenge in the clinic. Cyclosporin A has been a mainstay of immunosuppression therapy in organ transplantation for many years. While its application clearly is efficacious in the inhibition of T-cell proliferation and results in the decrease of inflammatory processes, its side effects in long-term use manifested most prominently through nephrotoxicity have been the main concern against broader use of the drug in inflammatory and immune diseases other than organ transplantation. Several new strategies are currently being pursued to address cyclosporin A toxicity, as summarised in this review. The improved safety profile of novel cyclosporin analogues appear to promise potential new treatments of asthma.
Subject(s)
Asthma/drug therapy , Cyclosporine/chemistry , Cyclosporine/therapeutic use , Animals , Asthma/immunology , Clinical Trials as Topic/statistics & numerical data , HumansABSTRACT
Malaria remains one of the most serious diseases worldwide, and increasing and widespread resistance against available antimalarial therapeutics calls for the discovery and development of novel therapeutic strategies. Malarial proteinases represent an attractive and alternative drug target. The life cycle of the Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria depends on proteinolytic degradation of hemoglobin, and intervention in that process has been shown to be curative in animal models. The current progress towards novel malarial proteinase inhibitors, as documented in the patent literature, will be discussed in this review.