Dear Colleague

Welcome to the first issue of Dialog Pharma/Biotech News. We are very pleased to offer this new resource designed especially for information professionals and knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In addition to bringing you product and content news, search tips and other information specific to the Dialog and Dialog DataStar products, we will bring you other items of interest from industry experts and colleagues. Please take special note of the "call for contributors" section. Our goal is to make this newsletter relevant and valuable for you, so please send us your ideas and feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.

Bonnie Snow, Director
Pharmaceutical Markets

Chemical Structure Searching in More Pharmaceuticals Databases on Dialog

IMS R&D Focus (445) and Prous Drugs of the Future (453) have been enhanced on the Dialog service to support chemical structure searching using DialogLink 5. Now, using a popular structure drawing program such as MDL Draw to draw a compound, you can then search drug pipeline data quickly and cost-effectively using the image. Seamless linking between DialogLink and your drawing program make it easy to modify structures to refine your searching.

Chemical structure searching is also available in Pharmaprojects (128, 928), Prous Drug Data Report (452), Beilstein Online (390) and Derwent Chemistry Resource (355). For more about DialogLink 5, please visit support.dialog.com/dialoglink/.

FDAnews

FDAnews (File 182/FDAN), the premier provider of domestic and international regulatory, legislative and business news and information for industries regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and The European Commission, is now available on Dialog and Dialog DataStar.

The database includes seven newsletters with topics ranging from ethics of clinical trials (Clinical Trials Advisor) and technical quality control issues (Drug GMP Report Monthly) to briefings from Capitol Hill and U.S. government agencies on FDA appropriations, warnings and recalls (Drug Industry Daily). The generic drug industry, including cooperative agreements, is also covered (Generic Line), and concise summaries report FDA regulatory changes and key legislation that affects prescription and OTC drugs (Washington Drug Letter). Additional insights for complying with the complex and still-evolving 21 CFR Part 11 rule (Part 11 Compliance Report) and help in obtaining biodefense grants and contracts make FDAnews a database for all of your regulatory and compliance needs.

More details on FDAnews, consult the Dialog Bluesheet or Dialog DataStar Datasheet.

What is the Lipinski "Rule of 5"?

Developed by Dr. Chris Lipinski and colleagues, the "Rule of 5" is a set of criteria that offers a method for assessing a compound's likely success as an oral drug. The rule states that a drug is more likely to be orally bioavailable if it has the following attributes:

Molecular weight is <500

Number of hydrogen bond acceptors is <10

Number of hydrogen bond donors is <5

AlogP value (a predicted measure of the compound's relative solubility in octanol and water, a measure of lipophilicity) is <5

So, why when there are only 4 criteria is it a "Rule of 5"? Because each of the cut-off values are either five or a multiple of 5.

Pharmaprojects (File 128/PHAR) recently added Linpinski parameters to all drug profiles that have chemical structures. Read the Chronolog article for more information about other recent enhancements to Pharmaprojects.

Call for Contributors

Participate in knowledge sharing with your colleagues interested in pharmaceutical-related topics. Share your story suggestions with us at support.dialog.com/enewsletters/contribute/.