Commonwealth Biotechnologies is pleased to announce further details regarding Venturepharm Asia, its joint venture with Venturepharm Laboratories (VPL). The partnership was established to leverage CBI’s and VPL’s respective strengths in drug discovery and clinical research. The initial focus will be to establish two new state-of-the-art chemistry facilities in Jiangsu province, China. To support the new facilities, Venturepharm (Asia) will appoint up to 200 chemists in 2008, with the aim of hiring 1,000 by 2010. Bill Guo, chairman and CEO of VPL, said, “Through competitive advantages in price, speed and quality of service, this joint venture aims to establish one of the largest global providers in the drug discovery market.” Here’s the press release.

It’s not clinical. But who knows? There’s a conference this fall on “chronic disorganization,” by an organization dedicated to the topic. Here’s the news release.

PanGenex announced that Ronald Caputo, director of cardiology research at St. Joseph’s Hospital in New York has accepted an invitation to join the company’s board of directors. “The addition of Dr. Caputo to the PanGenex team is a testament to the product, the research and the organization that has been put together over the last several years,” states Jeff Roman, president and CEO, PanGenex.

Particle Sciences, a CRO, has expanded its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania lab from 9,000 to 15,000 square feet. The expansion includes additional formulation and analytic laboratories. “This is the latest in a series of technology and infrastructure investments Particle Sciences is making in response to our clients’ growing needs,” says Garry Gwozdz, director of formulation. “As a CRO, we are seeing increasingly challenging drug delivery and analytic projects.” Here’s the press release.

LifeWatch announced the appointment of Marikay Menard as VP of clinical strategy, effective May 5, 2008. “We are delighted that Ms. Menard has agreed to serve as our vice president of clinical strategy,” stated Roger Richardson, president and COO of LifeWatch. “She brings a wealth of clinical, analytical and project management experience in the health care industry, and her strong client relationships and consulting skills will help drive our revenue growth initiatives and facilitate our expansion into other areas of health care,” he said. Menard has enabled early adopter health care organizations to transform manual, disconnected clinical processes to automated, integrated closed-loop work flows.

To increase cancer patients’ understanding of their medical options, Thomson Reuters has partnered with the Lance Armstrong Foundation to provide 20 cancer profiler tools on LAF’s website. Now available under the website’s Cancer Support tab, the Thomson Reuters tools allow patients and caregivers to enter detailed information on a diagnosis and receive treatment options and other information. The online resource provides a step-by-step approach to help users understand diagnostic tests, treatment options and, in some cases, outcomes based on data in published clinical trials. All of the information is based on a database of peer-reviewed clinical research. “This tool significantly expands what we are able to offer those who visit LAF’s website in terms of personalized treatment options, awareness and education,” said Andy Miller, VP of programs and policies for the Armstrong charity.

iGuard, a Quintiles effort to get patients to record their own adverse events, has let the FDA know about intriguing, self-reported adverse events related to statin usage. Speaking at a medical meeting, iGuard reports that 10-15 percent of its members who take statins report muscle weakness. “What this data shows us is that there is a great need to consider patient feedback as part of post-marketing safety studies,” said Hugo Stephenson, iGuard’s founder and CEO. “While electronic claims data can monitor for hospitalizations and mortality, it is unable to detect signals such as muscle weakness that could be a precursor to a more serious adverse event.” Here’s the release. We’ve previously covered iGuard here and here.

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