A Marriage of Large and Small: R & D for Healthcare Products
The most critical factor for success in the pharmaceutical industry is the discovery of novel drugs that treat major illnesses for which there had been, up to then, only inadequate kinds of treatment. Until a decade or so ago, most drugs were discovered through the in-house research of major pharmaceutical companies. But now these major companies are increasingly relying on small firms and academia for drug discovery, while concentrating on their core competences of drug development and marketing. A similar pattern is emerging in other parts of the healthcare industry. This article discusses the synergy between small and large firms in healthcare and suggests that this pattern may become a general one for all innovative industries.
The Role of Triple Helix in the Global Agenda for Innovation, Competitiveness and Sustainability: An Ontological Framework
We present an ontological framework to capture the complex problem of managing the role of Triple Helix in the global agenda for innovation, competitiveness, and sustainability. The framework yields a comprehensive natural language elucidation of the problem using a structured terminology. It can be used for understanding the Triple Helix as a dynamic evolving system of innovation, and for science, technology, and innovation capacity building. It illustrates the application of the ontology in the context of Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) – an emerging discipline for the translation of basic research to health care practice and of health care problems to basic research. Last, the framework can be used to develop systematic strategies to form and manage Triple Helix partnerships.
EFFECT OF PRENATAL PHENYTOIN EXPOSURE ON THE APICAL ECTODERMAL RIDGES OF CHICK WING BUDS
Objective: To observe the effect of sodium phenytoin on the development of the apical ectodermal ridges (AER) in chick wing buds.Study Design: Laboratory based case-control study.Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out at the Department of Anatomy located at the Regional Center of College of Physicians and Surgeons Islamabad Pakistan, from Jan 2014 to Jan 2015.Material and Methods: Sixty fertilized chicken eggs of ‘Egyptian fayoumi’ breed were selected and divided into two subgroups, experimental and control, each having 30 eggs. A single dose of 3.5 mg sodium phenytoin was injected in each egg of the experimental subgroup while controls were administered same volume of normal saline. The embryos were extracted 96 hours (day 4) after incubation. Histological sections were cut at 5 μm thickness and stained with Feulgen Nuclear and Light Green to measure the maximum thickness of the apical ectodermal ridges. The number of cells and mitoses in each ridges were also counted. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis.Results: There was no significant difference between experimental and control subgroups regarding the maximum thickness and number of cells in the apical ectodermal ridge but there was a statistically significant reduction in the number of mitoses in the experimental ridges.Conclusion: The study shows that sodium phenytoin exerts an inhibitory effect on the apical ectodermal ridges of developing limbs evident by the decreased number of mitoses in the AER of wing buds of experimental chick embryos making it a potential target site for limb teratogenicity associated with its maternal intake during pregnancy.