Tag: Asia
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Unregulated Drug Market Hurting TB Public Health Efforts
The campaign against tuberculosis is generally considered a public health responsibility, but a new study indicates that private, unregulated TB drug sales may be hurting rather than helping those efforts. Results of the study appear in the new issue of the journal PLoS ONE. The research, conducted by the organization TB Alliance and health care…
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Global Venture Capital Volume Up in Q1, Deal Number Down
The volume of venture deals for companies in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Israel, China, and India jumped 20 percent to $9.8 billion in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010. However, the number of deals worldwide declined 7 percent in the first quarter, to 967. The data compiled by Dow…
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Dutch-Chinese Project to Simulate Shipping Port Traffic
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands and Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China will develop a traffic model for shipping in congested port areas, which they hope will provide a better understanding of the ports’ capacity and improve safety. The project is part of a program by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific…
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Genes Associated with Glaucoma Identified
Researchers in Australia and the U.K. have identified two genes associated with open-angle glaucoma (OAG), the most common form of the disease that can lead to blindness. The team’s findings are published online this week in the journal, Nature Genetics. The researchers tested some 4,500 patients in Australia and New Zealand, including 590 individuals with…
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Grant Funds Cross-Border Illegal E-Waste Tracking
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $2.5 million grant to help international efforts that curb improper disposal of hazardous electronic waste. EPA estimates that only about five percent of the more than 40 million metric tonnes of annual global e-waste are being recovered. The five-year grant to the United Nations University (UNU)…
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Database to Track Substandard, Counterfeit Medicines
U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, a pharmaceutical industry standards body in Rockville, Maryland, unveiled its Medicines Quality Database (MQDB) that provides information on the quality of medicines in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. The database, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has more than 8,700 records of tested samples collected in Ghana, Laos, Vietnam,…
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Merck to Offer Biotech Funding, Incubator in Israel
The global pharmaceutical company Merck in Darmstadt, Germany has opened the Merck Serono Israel Bioincubator Fund, to support Israeli biotech and materials science start up companies. Merck’s chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley announced the initiative yesterday during meetings with officials in Israel. Merck’s incubator program covers pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and high-performance materials. The program will offer start…
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U.K., Indian Spin Offs to Partner on Drug Discovery
InhibOx Ltd. in Oxford, U.K. and COSMIC Discoveries in Hyderabad, India, signed a partnership to offer drug discovery services combining their computational, medicinal, and synthetic chemistry capabilities. Both companies are spin-off enterprises of academic or research institutions — Oxford University and the Institute of Life Sciences, respectively. InhibOx provides computational drug discovery services, and has…
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Russian, U.S. Scientists Develop Online Agricultural Maps
A team of researchers from Russia and the U.S. have developed AgroAtlas, an online resource of agricultural and geographic data for Russia and surrounding countries. The publicly available collection, with downloadable tools to analyze the data, is a joint project of Russian universities and institutes, and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, with funding from the…
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Universities License Regenerative Membrane Technology
The technology transfer offices at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel, say they have licensed technology for regenerative membrane implants developed at their institutions. RegeneCure, the licensee — also in Jerusalem — will further develop and commercialize the technology for bone tissue engineering in trauma, spine, and reconstructive cranial and…