news from the lab 2014

After dementing the romours that Roche would buy all the outstanding shares of Chugai it does not yet own, the pharma giant has after all been involved in some mergers and acquisitions activity with a $8.3 billion offer in cash for InterMune.

Scientists have clarified the workings of thalidomide at the molecular level. Their analysis of various structures indicates that the drug can interfere with cellular processes in two different ways-once preventing and once promoting protein degradation-thus explaining its diverse clinical effects. In the early 1960s, thalidomide - a drug widely prescribed at that time as a sedative and for the treatment of morning sickness in pregnancy - became notorious when it was found to cause birth defects.

An international research team led by scientists at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich has succeeded in improving a class of early-generation antibiotics: they have been able to suppress their once serious side effects. Antibiotic is more selective "We have now modified the mode of action of antibiotics of this group so that they can distinguish between human and pathogenic ribosomes far better," explains Böttger.