Evado—CRO module/ Australia
With rise in cost of conducting clinical trials, clinical trial organizations are looking for solutions that will help them save time and money. Considering this huge opportunity Evado, a Melbourne-based specialist group of engineers and scientists has developed Evado management module for CROs.

The module manages both paper-based and electronic clinical trials. Thus, clinical trial managers can operate it as either a stand-alone application for paper based trials or integrate it into the Evado clinical module. This would enable seamless organization of clinical and management aspects of trial. The extensive online reporting feature is visible to all users at all sites.

Glaritus—Recombinant human insulin from Wockhardt/ India
With India emerging as the diabetes capital of the world, Mumbai-based Wockhardt, pharmaceutical and biotechnology major from India launched Glaritus, a recombinant long acting human insulin analogue on Feb 10 this year. Glaritus works slowly for over 24 hours. It is available to the patients as reusable and disposable pen delivery devices. The advantage of Glaritus is that it is a once daily dose and provides basal glucose control over 24 hours. Glaritus can hence be easily combined with other oral medications of diabetes for effective blood glucose control. Moreover, Glaritus is a meal independent, peak less insulin, which reduces incidences of hypoglycaemia significantly. Wockhardt is the first company after the innovator to launch this new insulin.

Basalog—Biocon/ India
Biocon, India’s leading biotechnology company based in Bangalore launched Basalog, a long acting peakless human insulin analogue, Glargine in May 2009. In India, the product is available in 10 ml and 3 ml vials. Basalog (Glargine) is a significant advance in diabetic treatment which is effective for 24 hours while continuing to maintain the basal level of insulin required throughout the period thus helping to control glucose levels in the blood, especially Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG). The key advantage of this product is that it replaces other long acting insulins that do not act for 24 hours.

Nucleus 5 System Cochlear/ Australia
Hearing solutions leader, Australia-based Cochlear has launched a new cochlear implant system that is designed to give patients best hearing performance, with the world’s thinnest cochlear implant.

The Cochlear Nucleus 5 System is a new solution that sets a new benchmark in the field of cochlear implant technology. Cochlear has received approval from the USA Food and Drug Administration of the two Premarket Approval Supplements covering the new Cochlear Nucleus 5 System.

Lipidown, anti-obesity drug—Hanmi Pharmaceuticals/ Korea
Lipidown, the anti-obesity drug from Hanmi Pharmaceuticals works by blocking the binding of the fat dissolving enzyme, lipase, with the fat, and promotes the natural excretion of the fat from the body. This drug was developed with Hanmi’s own advanced material synthesis technology (Patent 2007-111075).

Lipidown is the generic version of the Xenical, (orlistat) of Roche. Xenical is the number one prescription weight loss medication, approved for use in adults in over 50 countries worldwide. Xenical has a unique mode of action as it works locally in the gut to prevent dietary fat absorption by around 30 percent and effectively promotes weight loss.

RT-PCR molecular diagnostic assay— Ocimum Biosolutions/ India
Pandemics related to H1N1 flu need to be rapidly identified at the source so that public health officials can implement various measures to control the disease. To support the public health emergency requirements, Ocimum Biosolutions, an integrated genomics services company from India has launched microarray-test (research use only) for the latest version of the H1N1 flu on May 4, 2009.

The RT-PCR assay and the microarray will quickly identify the H1N1 virus in patients diagnosed with Influenza A as some older tests may not pick up this new strain. Both these assays can be conducted in a few hours thereby avoiding the risk of patients with suspected cases infecting others.

Diagnostic kits for H1N1 influenza—Hai Kang Life Corporation/ Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based Hai Kang Life Corporation (HKLife) too announced the release of its series of molecular diagnostic test kits for Influenza Type A (H1N1), on May 13, 2009. The test kits have been developed in rapid response to the 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak as World Health Organization (WHO) has called for all member states to enhance surveillance and diagnostic capacities for influenza and other acute respiratory infections.

The Influenza A (H1N1) detection kits are available across three diagnostic technology platforms. All three platforms are highly sensitive and specific, giving rapid and accurate results within two to four hours.

Pemetrexed—Intas Biopharmaceuticals/ India
Intas Biopharmaceuticals, one of India’s leading oncology drug marketing company has launched Pemetrexed, under the brand name Pemmet.

Pemetrexed is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer caused primarily from smoking and Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

Pemetrexed is used with another chemotherapy (anti-cancer) medication to treat malignant pleural mesothelioma (a type of cancer that affects the inside lining of the chest cavity). Pemetrexed is in a class of medications called antifolate antineoplastic agents. It works by blocking the action of a certain substance in the body that may help cancer cells multiply.

Legend NGSS, a next gen screening solution—Jubilant Biosys/ India
To enhance the productivity of pharmaceutical and biotech research, Jubilant Biosys based in Bangalore, India has developed a next generation screening solution, Legend NGSS. This innovative product will further enable the process of high throughput screening, accelerating global drug discovery. This software allows scientists to capture, store, and analyze Oracle 9i/10g based screening data with greater flexibility, accuracy and speed.

Legend NGSS allows users to create rich visualization and interactive analysis reports, including dose-response curves and scatter plot heat maps. This novel tool allows flexible and interactive mother to daughter plate mapping from any plate reader. This generates best-fit kinetic and time course assays, without internal IT intervention, complete management of compound and targeted libraries and optimized on-the fly curve-fitting techniques.