Tag Archives: pharmacology

Dr. Christina Marrongelli chosen by the World Congress on Pharmacology & Chemistry of Natural Compounds to moderate their 2018 conference in Paris

Dr. Christina Marrongelli chosen by the World Congress on Pharmacology & Chemistry of Natural Compounds to moderate their 2018 conference in Paris

Marrongelli selected for her expertise in Botanical Drug Development

LONDON, Jun-16-2018 — /EPR Healthcare News/ — As a leading expert in her field, Dr. Christina Marrongelli, PharmD has been chosen by the World Congress on Pharmacology & Chemistry of Natural Compounds to moderate their 2018 conference: Exploring New Trends & Innovations in Pharmacology and Natural Compounds. The conference is being held in Paris, France on June 18, 2018.

Dr. Marrongelli, who is an adjunct professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in the department of drug discovery and biomedical sciences will also present “Developing and Marketing Botanical Drugs in the United States”.

The United States, which has the largest pharmaceutical market in the world, demonstrates a strong demand for the use of botanicals as medicine. However, to date only two prescription botanical drugs are currently approved for use in the USA: Veregen® (sinecatechins) and Mytesi™Â (crofelemer).

Marrongelli attributes this disconnect between supply and demand to hidden barriers. She notes that with the worldwide herbal drug market is expected to reach nearly $86.74 billion by 2022, businesses must identify and address these barriers so that heterogeneous botanical drug products can obtain the approvals necessary to meet the consumers growing expectations and demands for botanical medicines.

To further explain the barriers to regulation of botanicals, Marrongelli points to the Botanical Drug Development Guidance for Industry from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) that was last updated in 2016. According to publication, regulation of botanicals in the U.S. is different from regulation in the rest of world. The U.S. does not have a separate regulatory category for traditional or herbal medicines: A botanical product may be classified as a food (including a dietary supplement), drug (including a biological drug), medical device, or cosmetic under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). Whether an article is a food, drug, medical device, or cosmetic depends in large part on its intended use.

To learn more about the issues and barriers to the development of botanical drugs, please contact Dr. Marrongelli at Marronge@musc.edu or DrM@pharmD.expert.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

HD Biosciences and Anchor Therapeutics Form Collaboration for Co-marketing Pepducin-mediated GPCR Technology

HD Biosciences Co., Ltd (HDB) and Anchor Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that they have formed a strategic collaboration to co-develop and co-market Anchor’s proprietary pepducin technology and provide novel drug development solutions to global pharmaceutical companies with drug discovery efforts focused on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR).

Pepducins are proprietary lipidated peptide modulators for GPCR signaling. They may stabilize receptor conformation, promote or inhibit dimerization, and modulate interaction of GPCR with signalosome. As a strong research tool, pepducin technology enables high throughput screening (HTS) campaigns for the identification of special class of compounds and allosteric ligands, facilitates biophysical studies via stabilization of GPCRs in different activation states and functionally de-orphanizes GPCRs to provide tools for interrogation of pharmacology in vitro and in vivo.

As a key component of HDB’s plate-based pharmacology service capabilities, GPCR assays and screenings is one of the most active research and development areas that attracts global clients and partners in drug discoveries. With over 200 recombinant GPCR cell lines in house, some of which are orphan receptors, combining a variety assay formats with pepducin technology allows HDB to enhance its capabilities for supporting hit identification, lead discovery and receptor selectivity profiling. The collaboration is also designed to provide broader exposure and accessibility of pepducin technology across pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries through HDB’s global client base. HDB’s clients will gain unprecedented access to not only the pepducin screening platform but also HDB-Anchor’s joint expertise in GPCR research.

“Anchor’s pepducin technology has provided a novel approach to search very special GPCR related compounds that have potential to alter the receptor functions. We believe this technology will be very valuable in GPCR related drug discovery.” commented Dr. Xuehai Tan, President and Chief Executive Officer of HDB. “As one of the global leaders in biology focused contract research services, HDB emphasizes on innovative and scientific driven technologies in order to deliver extra value to our clients. The partnership between HDB and Anchor is a perfect example to demonstrate our commitment to grow the expertise and strengthen our leadership in GPCR R&D.” Dr. Tan continues his comments.

“Anchor Therapeutics is extremely pleased to partner its pepducin technology with HD Biosciences, one of the leading companies providing state of the art high throughput screening services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients,” said Thomas J. McMurry, PhD, Anchor’s Interim President. Dr. McMurry continued, “Through this collaboration, Anchor and HDB will expand the validation of pepducin high throughput screening probes in order to provide HDB’s clients with access to innovative screens designed to facilitate access to novel small molecule pharmacophores.”

Via EPR Network
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