The Newhouse Research Site is a

drug research Drug development is the process of bringing a new pharmaceutical drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery. It includes preclinical research on microorganisms and animals, filing for regula ...

facility situated east of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in central Scotland. It is located beside the M8 motorway in Newhouse,

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

. The site is an early

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or ...

research centre with a track record of generating a succession of products in the areas of

anaesthesia Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...

and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

. In 2007, the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize was awarded to researchers for its work on a new anaesthesia drug,

sugammadex Sugammadex, sold under the brand name Bridion, is a medication for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium and vecuronium in general anaesthesia. It is the first selective relaxant binding agent (SRBA). It is marketed by ...

. It currently employs 250 scientists across a range of disciplines including

medicinal chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with drug design, designing and developing pharmaceutical medication, drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, ...

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

and

drug metabolism Drug metabolism is the metabolic breakdown of drugs by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. More generally, xenobiotic metabolism (from the Greek xenos "stranger" and biotic "related to living beings") is the set o ...

. The site is currently the largest private drug discovery centre in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and one of the biggest in the UK.

History

The campus was acquired by

Organon The ''Organon'' (, meaning "instrument, tool, organ") is the standard collection of Aristotle's six works on logical analysis and dialectic. The name ''Organon'' was given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics, who maintained against the ...

in 1948 and has continued to grow throughout the years. Scientists at the site are responsible for the invention of a succession of successful products, two of which have recently received approval. Organon was acquired by

Schering-Plough Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it becam ...

in 2007, and the site was further expanded with the addition of one of the largest compound management facilities in the industry. Schering-Plough merged with Merck (known as MSD outside of North America) at the end of 2009.

Products

The site has a long history of research in the area of neuromuscular blockers, which are commonly used during surgery, and was responsible for the identification of

rocuronium Rocuronium bromide (brand names Zemuron, Esmeron) is an aminosteroid non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocker or muscle relaxant used in modern anaesthesia to facilitate tracheal intubation by providing skeletal muscle relaxation for surgery o ...

as well as a number of other drugs. In another major advance the reversal agent

was the first

selective relaxant binding agent Selective relaxant binding agents (SRBAs) are a new class of drugs that selectively encapsulates and binds neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs). The first drug introduction of an SRBA is sugammadex. SRBAs exert a chelating action that effectively ...

(SRBA) for Neuromuscular Block Reversal to be identified, and has recently entered the market in Europe. On the psychiatric front researchers at Newhouse supported the development of mirtazepine, a novel

tetracyclic Tetracyclics are cyclic compound, cyclic chemical compounds that contain four fused ring (chemistry), rings of atoms, for example, Tröger's base. Some tricyclic compounds having three fused and one tethered ring (connected to main nucleus by ...

anti-depressant Antidepressants are a class of medications used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. Common side effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headaches, akathisia, sexua ...

which has become widely prescribed throughout the world. More recently the site was closely involved in supporting the introduction of the

anti-psychotic Antipsychotics, previously known as neuroleptics and major tranquilizers, are a class of psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizoph ...

asenapine Asenapine, sold under the brand name Saphris among others, is an atypical antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and acute mania associated with bipolar disorder as well as the medium to long-term management of bipolar disorder. I ...

which has just been launched for the treatment of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

Gallery

Image:Newhouse_Research_Site_Aerial.jpg, Aerial view from the north Image:Boundary_of_the_Newhouse_research_site.jpg, Site boundary Image:Newhouse_Research_Site_1949.jpg, Site in 1949 Image:Newhouse_Research_Site_1960s.jpg, Site in the 1960s Image:Newhouse_Research_Site_Chemistry_Building.jpg, View from across the pond Image:Newhouse_Research_Site_from_the_South.jpg, South facing building in the Sun Image:Pharm_south.jpg, South facing building in the evening Image:Newhouse,_Lanarkshire_within_the_United_Kingdom.jpg, Location of the Newhouse research site, within the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

References

{{North Lanarkshire places of interest Pharmaceutical industry Buildings and structures in North Lanarkshire Science and technology in Scotland