The final report of the Pharmaceutical Forum has been presented in Brussels setting out principles and recommendations on three key challenges in the pharmaceutical landscape. Firstly, how to improve information on diseases and treatments, secondly, how to compare medicines and identify the most effective ones and thirdly how to balance access and reward for innovation within limited healthcare budgets.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration's analysis provides new evidence that the use of statins does not increase incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." The analysis was reported on Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

It is now possible to have a global picture of which research organisations and which research areas were funded by the European Commission during the 2001-2006 years (6th European Research Framework Programme). The data has been generated from an online webbased database of competences, supported through an EU specific support action.

Search engines and Wikipedia play a major role in how European consumers retrieve health information online, reports leading global pharmaceutical and healthcare research firm Manhattan Research from its Cybercitizen® Health Europe v8.0 strategic research and advisory service.

At the 17th EADV Conference in Paris, LEO Pharma has unveiled a new weapon in its long-running campaign to improve psoriasis management and treatment outcomes. However, the weapon is not a new drug but a ground-breaking computer-modelling tool, designed to help those involved in the assessment, planning and provision of psoriasis treatment in primary care to balance optimum outcomes with the growing need for cost control.

Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq:GENZ) has marked the grand opening of its new Science Center in Framingham, Mass. The facility serves as a central site for early stage research, where scientists are utilizing the most advanced technologies available to discover novel new treatments for devastating diseases such as Parkinson's, cancer, and heart disease.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland will coordinate the large EU research project called SmartCell. The four-year project focuses on developing methods for production of valuable pharmaceutical compounds using plant cells as a production host in an effective and controlled manner.