IDdb reaches new milestone -- the publishing of its 20,000th Drug Report

Thomson Current Drugs, creators of the globally renowned investigational database IDdb, is proud to announce that in September 2003 the database published its 20,000th Drug Report since its creation in 1994. Thats a staggering number of drug developments in under a decade, corresponding to an average in excess of 40 new drugs a week.

The very first Drug Report back in 1994 focused on nateglinide, a hypoglycemic agent. It was subsequently marketed globally for the treatment of diabetes by a number of companies, including Ajinomoto, Yamanouchi, Novartis, Merck and Britannia Pharmaceuticals, under the names Fastic, Starsis and Starlix.

20,000th Drug
Early September saw the IDdbs 20,000th Drug Report, which describes a hyper-immune globulin approach to the treatment of SARS from Hong Kong-based company Advantek Biologics Ltd. The company is using a proprietary Solvent/Detergent method licensed from the New York Blood Center and chromatography technology under exclusive Asian license from Amersham Biosciences to isolate immunoglobulins from convalescent SARS patients plasma.

Dr Bing Lou Wong, CEO of Advantek, was delighted to learn that the program had become the IDdb's 20,000th drug. He believes that application of the technology, already a proven route to immunization and treatment of rabies, tetanus and Ebola, is an ideal weapon against SARS while time-consuming development of vaccines takes place. "SARS may show a seasonal pattern," he said. "If the disease returns this winter, our approach could be an effective and immediate treatment option, and we have already received approval for clinical evaluation in China from the appropriate authorities."

The company is now working fast to produce more of the hyper-immune globulin as titers from patients affected by the recent outbreak rapidly decline. According to Dr Kit Tang, Scientific Advisor at Advantek, "Production of the second and third clinical batches of SARS hyperimmune globulin is about to commence. Since our convalescent plasma was collected from newly recovered SARS patients, the titers of hyperimmune globulin produced are considered clinically optimal."

In the meantime, Advantek awaits the result of a grant application to the National Institutes of Health in the US, before considering further regional grant applications, and possibly extending its approach to other infectious diseases.

IDdbs Comprehensive Reports
With offices in the UK, USA and Japan, Thomson Current Drugs has a large team of editors and contributors covering the developed world, all with valuable information sources spanning the entire pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The IDdb then encapsulates this wealth of knowledge for its users, updating the database daily with the very latest information. And, of course, the databases Reports are particularly comprehensive.

IDdb has three regular Reports -- Drug, Company and Patents. Providing users with the most up to date and reliable information, all the Reports are continuously updated as new information is available (within 2-3 weeks of patent publication for the Patent Reports).

The Drug Reports consolidate all the available data into a reliable description of the drugs journey through the R&D process. Regularly featuring expert commentary, the reader benefits further from professional opinion on the drugs significance.

Key Elements
Containing all the specific compound information you may need, all of the data within the Reports is searchable. Users can drill down to the underlying reference reports, link to news and company reports, or access the patent information.

Each Report is headed up with a table that provides a quick overview of the drug, followed by a text Summary detailing information such as the company, the drugs development status and the staging of any clinical trials. Another table then clearly shows the development status, providing information on the drugs history and confidence levels.

The drugs chemical structure is illustrated for users to examine, under which will be found all its associated compound names and licensing arrangements.

The Report also includes a comprehensive literature evaluation, with links to the full reports, and a section on Scientific Data that provides clinical, chemical, metabolism and biological study reports, all summarized in a link table. Additionally, the drugs market value and commercial data is available.

Export the Reports
IDdb has recently been further enhanced with software improvements. Enabling a number of new functions, users can now export Drug, Company and Patent reports as Word documents. Additionally, the new software enables chemical structures to be exported within a SmartSheet to Excel. These improvements allow users the opportunity to study the Reports and their structures without having to be logged onto the database.

For more information on IDdb, its comprehensive Reports and the new software releases, visit www.iddb.com