Articles

30 December 2013

PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE ANTIPROLIFERATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE HERBAL FORMULA EKPO AGANWO

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29 December 2013

DRUG INDUCED MITOCHONDRIAL TOXICITY: MECHANISTIC DIVERSITY AND DELETERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE LIVER

About Authors:
Keyur S. Patel*, Mital Mehta
Department of Pharmacology,
Anand Pharmacy College, Anand.
Gujarat, India.
keyurpatel200189@gmail.com
27 December 2013

TILLING: VERSATILE REVERSE GENETIC TOOL

About Authors:
Navgeet¹, Balraj Singh Gill², Arvind Negi³*, Shashi Shekhar Anand²
¹Institute of Himalayan Bioresource and Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur (HP)
²Centre for Biosciences Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (Punjab)
³Centre for Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (Punjab)
26 December 2013

WHAT IS NEEDED TO MAKE A CAREER WORTH APING IN PHARMACEUTICAL ORGANIZATION?

Introduction
Education leads to development of an individual and these individuals are expected to develop the larger mass of people, constituting society, city and ultimately nation. Education must deliver the result. A proper education and allied training make a person job-ready. Cut throat competition is taking its toll and students are taking extreme steps. This cut throat competition prevailing in almost all domains is changing equations across human resource (HR) departments. In pharmaceutical sciences opportunities are like never before. This sentence may sound ridiculous to some and some may approve it. First of all, let me demystify the fact that pharmaceutical sciences involve many sciences so students end up with the tag “Jack of all, master of none”. Why one forgets that pharmaceutical sciences mean (in broader sense) discovering-developing and launching new molecules and this is not possible by a person sound in only one stream/subject. This is not the job of every Tom, Dick and Harry or any Tom, Dick or Harry. Here comes the role of graduate or post graduate who has tremendous knowledge of the relevant field. Jobs are aplenty, especially after India became signatory country in newer patent laws (process patent since 2005). These news rules forced the closing of many reverse engineering chapters; but the silver line is that it also forced Indian pharma think tank to discover new molecules, which will require trained and talented man power. Credit for first such molecule goes to Ahmadabad based Cadila Healthcare Ltd. This article very precisely highlights the job scenario and allied aspects.
25 December 2013

FRUITS & VEGGIES GRANDIOSE ON PESTICIDES

Various investigations and concerning research reports reveal that although a Pesticides Act exists to safeguard consumer interest, there is no MRL (Maximum Residue Level) in place or regulations to enforce it. Nearly every food item from rice to veggies and fruits available in the market are contaminated with poisonous pesticides, authorities caution. Pesticides and insecticides could be detrimental to people’s immune and reproductive systems. It can even lead to infertility. Developmental toxins’ in these chemicals may adversely affect the development in children. They may also act as endocrine disrupters, leading to hormonal imbalances. These chemicals are also not biodegradable(able to decompose naturally). As such, they persist for a long time and get transferred into the food chain. This means that overtime, they get deposited in the human body.
25 December 2013

GENERIC DAVIDS AND INNOVATOR GOLIATHS

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ABOUT AUTHOR:
Amit Gangwal
Department of Pharmacognosy,
Smriti college of pharmaceutical education, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
gangwal.amit@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Patents provide an incentive to the pharmaceutical industry to invest in the development of new medicines to treat diseases that are currently untreatable or incurable, and provide options when patients develop resistance to older drugs. Around the world it has been a challenge for last one or two decades to innovate concepts and mechanisms to hasten the drug development schemes/process, while augmenting dereplication ways in a full proof manner to save time, man power and financial input. High failure rate at any stage in drug development process is bothering and evoking various tools to be discussed like never before. The pharmaceutical industries world over, are in a period of crisis due to the poor number of approved drug molecules relative to the high levels of R&D investment. The drug industry is facing major scientific and strategic challenges. Moreover competition from generic giants is giving tough challenge to established products owing to end of patent rights. The concerns are further aggravated by couple of decisions announced by Indian courts (Nexavar® followed by long time pending battle of Gleevac®). These two decrees by Indian courts were not ruled in the favor of pharma giants; Bayer and Novartis respectively. Millions are dying in various part of world, owing to their inability to purchase the Elite Drugs, because of intellectual property rights. In this article various pros and cons have been discussed pertaining to generic medicines and patent fights of innovators world over.
23 December 2013

FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO CHARACTERIZATION OF SUSTAINED RELEASE PELLETS OF VENLAFAXINE HCl

About Author:
Anitha Nidadavolu
Department of Industrial Pharmacy
Chalapathi Institute of Pharmceutical Sciences
Chalapathi Nagar, Lam, Guntur-522034,
Andhra Pradesh, India.
anitha058@gmail.com
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Abstract:
In the present study, an attempt was made to develop and characterize once daily sustained release pellets of highly water soluble drug Venlafaxine Hydrochloride, which is an antidepressant of serotonin-nor epinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI). Compatibility studies by FTIR spectroscopy observed Venlafaxine HCl was compatible with all the excipients used. These pellets were prepared in three stages. In drug loading stage (powder layering technique with pan coater), drug was loaded on non-pareil sugar spheres by using Mannitol, Microcrystalline powder (MCCP) as diluents and PVP K30 as binder. The concentration of Venlafaxine HCl was kept constant. Four preliminary batches of drug loaded pellets prepared by varying concentrations of disintegrant Crospovidone INF-10 (D1- D4) i.e. 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, 6%. Optimized formulation was selected based on percentage yield, drug content (assay) and found D3- 4.5% as best. In barrier coating stage(wurster process with fluidized bed coater) drug loaded pellets of D3 were coated by different concentrations of film former HPMC E3 (B1- B3) i.e.4%, 6%, 8%. Among them, B2- 6% found as best. In SR coating stage (wurster process with fluidized bed coater) barrier pellets of B2 were coated by varying concentrations of release rate retarding polymer Ethyl cellulose EC 7 cps (S1- S4) i.e. 2%, 5%, 6%, 8%. These EC (S1- S4) formulations were characterized fordrug content (assay), particle size distribution, friability,flow properties, surface morphology (SEM) and dissolution profile.In vitro dissolution studies were carried out by USP dissolution apparatus Type-II and compared with innovator Effexor XR^®. Among all formulations S4(8%) was best, followed first order kinetics and found to release the drug over a sustained period of time up to 24 hrs. The release exponent (n values) for all found in the range of n > 1, indicated that the drug transport mechanism by super case-II transport. The optimized S4 formulation was found as pharmaceutically equivalent to innovator due to similarity (f2 =77.77) in drug release profile. As per ICH guidelines, accelerated stability studies conducted and there was no significant difference in physicochemical parameters (p < 0.05), indicated that the optimized S4 formulation was stable.
22 December 2013

INDOLE BASED ALKALOID IN CANCER: AN OVERVIEW

About Authors:
Ramit Singla¹, Arvind Negi¹*, Virendra Singh²
¹Centre for Chemical and pharmaceutical sciences, Central university of Punjab, Bathinda, India
²Department of Chemistry, National institute of technology, Jalandhar, India
*arvindnegi2301@gmail.com
17 December 2013

PHARMACOLOGICAL UPDATES OF PISTIA STRATIOTES (WATER LETTUCE/ JALAKUMBHI): A MINI REVIEW

About Authors:
Kuntal Pal¹, Sampat Kumar Kundu²
¹Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Rajiv Gandhi South Campus,
Banaras Hindu University, Barkachha, Mirzapur-231001
²Gurunanak Institute of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology
Sodepur, West Bengal.
sampatkundu001@gmail.com
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Abstract
World is running so first, at this moment medicines have to work to maintain the health of the people to give them power to stabilize them. Modern medicine is working from a decades or so, but many traditional systems of medicines also show some beneficial effects in that era. Likewise Kampo, Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM), Ayurveda & Herbal Medicines. Those kind of medicines can give a patient resistant to protect the disease without less side effects. Pistia stratiotes is a plant which plays a commendable role in that era. It is used in different kind of disease which are described in this mini review.
16 December 2013

TO STUDY THE EFFICACY AND EFFECTS ON LIPID METABOLISM, ANTHROPOMETRY AND BLOOD PRESSURE OF COMBINATION TREATMENT WITH ARB+HCTZ AND ACES+HCTZ IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENT

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