Korean researchers have screened 48 FDA-approved drugs against SARS-CoV-2, and found that two, that are already FDA-approved for other illnesses, seem promising. The FDA approval for other uses would greatly reduce the time needed to gain FDA approval of use in COVID-19. The research is published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of theContinue reading “Two drugs show promise against COVID-19”
Category Archives: Pharmaceutical manufacturing & Pharmacoeconomics
Low levels of vitamin D may be linked to severe COVID-19
A new observational study from the United States indicates that vitamin D insufficiency may play a significant role in the progression of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The research titled ‘Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe COVID-19’ is available on the preprint server medRxiv. A highly transmittable viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirusContinue reading “Low levels of vitamin D may be linked to severe COVID-19”
Drug that keeps surface receptors on cancer cells makes them more visible to immune cells
A drug that is already clinically available for the treatment of nausea and psychosis, called prochlorperazine (PCZ), inhibits the internalization of receptors on the surface of tumor cells, thereby increasing the ability of anticancer antibodies to bind to the receptors and mount more effective immune responses. PCZ enhanced the ability of anticancer antibodies to reduceContinue reading “Drug that keeps surface receptors on cancer cells makes them more visible to immune cells”
Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic
The computer model, which can screen more than a hundred million chemical compounds in a matter of days, is designed to pick out potential antibiotics that kill bacteria using different mechanisms than those of existing drugs. “We wanted to develop a platform that would allow us to harness the power of artificial intelligence to usherContinue reading “Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic”
CDC diagnostic coronavirus test gets FDA emergency approval
In the light of the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic in China, the US Food and Drug Administration has granted approval of a diagnostic test for use in emergency situations (emergency use authorization or EUA). The viral infection has spread to many different and distant parts of the world, involving over 25,000 people and causing nearlyContinue reading “CDC diagnostic coronavirus test gets FDA emergency approval”
This ‘lemon’ could help machine learning create better drugs
Purdue University drug discovery researchers have created a new framework for mining data for training machine learning models. The framework, called Lemon, helps drug researchers better mine the Protein Data Base (PDB) — a comprehensive resource with more than 140,000 biomolecular structures and with new ones being released every week. The work is published inContinue reading “This ‘lemon’ could help machine learning create better drugs”
How is Chemoinformatics Used in Drug Discovery?
Chemoinformatics is a relatively new principle of chemistry and is based upon the processing of data concerning chemical and molecular structures through the use of computational analysis. The analysis of these data allows the relationship between chemical structure, chemical properties, and molecular activity to be studied. It is an in silico technique, which means itContinue reading “How is Chemoinformatics Used in Drug Discovery?”
Webinar on Pharmaceutical Chemistry 