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.

Now, you can create your own CD with the whole European Union Pharmaceutical Legislation (Human and Veterinary) and an integrated search engine. The CD content is similar to the EudraLex web site, but it can be used off-line with the search engine. All the documents are in .pdf format and without protection.

Manhattan Research, a leading provider of access to physician and consumer opinions on the global healthcare market, reveals today the top pharmaceutical web sites visited by European consumers. Bayer moves into the top spot from last year's ranking at #2. Roche and Pfizer take this year's second and third spots respectively.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has posted on its Web site its first quarterly report that lists certain drugs that are being evaluated for potential safety issues. The drugs have been identified based on a review of reports in FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS).

The best place to seek novel compounds for pharmaceutical drugs, alternative energy sources, and a host of industrial applications, is within natural systems that have evolved over millions of years. Scientists now realise that the precise molecular arrangements within natural pathways in organisms have been highly tuned for specific processes and provide both compounds that can be exploited directly and vital information over how to synthesise new products by mimicking biochemical processes.

One of pharmacology's oldest underlying principles looks set to be overturned. New findings from chemists at the UK's University of Warwick appear to contradict the century-old 'Overton's Rule', which sets out how fast chemicals, such as medicines, can cross cell walls. The findings have major implications for drug development.