Internal Medicine

Gene Logic Inc. announced last month that it had entered into a drug repositioning and development agreement with Roche that will seek to find alternative therapeutic uses for drug candidates that have failed in late stage trials for their initial indications. All compounds that are part of the deal successfully passed Phase I but were discontinued in Phase II or Phase III trials.

The total U.S. proteomics sample preparation market was $41.6 million in 2004 according to a recently-released report

Astex Therapeutics announced in early December a new strategic alliance with Novartis focused on the research, development and commercialization of novel cell cycle control drugs for the treatment of cancers and other human diseases. The agreement grants Novartis a worldwide license to Astex’s novel oral cell cycle inhibitor, AT9311, currently completing IND-enabling preclinical studies, and an option for a global license to Astex’s parenteral cell cycle inhibitor, AT7519, currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. AT7519 and AT9311 were both discovered using Astex’s proprietary fragment-based drug discovery platform, Pyramid.

At the recent Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, researchers at Biogen Idec and Yale University Medical School described a new method that may slow and possibly reverse the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is one of a handful of neurodegenerative disorders that has seen a dramatic increase in prevalence as Western populations age.

Eidogen-Sertanty, a computational drug discovery solutions provider, announced recently that it has entered into a collaborative service project with KAI Pharmaceuticals, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based drug discovery company focused on the development of Protein Kinase C (PKC) modulators for a variety of diseases—particularly cardiovascular disease.

In mid-November, Bruker AXS Inc. closed on the purchase of two X-ray microanalysis businesses: Berlin-based Roentec AG and the PGT unit of Princeton Gamma-Tech of Rocky Hill, N.J. At the closing, Bruker announced the formation of Bruker AXS Microanalysis Group, a new business unit which will leverage the technology and sales organizations of the two acquired companies in a business and application area that is new to Bruker AXS.

Agilent Technologies in late October unveiled its next-generation DNA microarray manufacturing process that will increase feature density of its ink-jet-based microarrays by more than four times in 2006 and perhaps tenfold or more in 2007.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University recently announced that they are receiving five-year funding from the National Cancer Institute, to the tune of $20 million, for the MIT-Harvard Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. Closely following this announcement was the presentation of recent research at November’s 13th European Cancer Conference regarding the use of nanoparticle-aptamer bioconjugates for drug delivery, which was spearheaded by MIT and the Harvard Medical School.

DOR BioPharma Inc. announced last month that it signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Gastrotech Pharma A/S, a private Danish biotechnology company based in Copenhagen. Gastrotech develops therapeutics based on peptide hormones to treat cancer and gastrointestinal diseases and conditions. Gastrotech was founded on technology developed at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, which is known as the development cradle of growth hormone and IGF-1 research.

WHEN YOU’VE CHOSEN the profession I have, there is one thing you need to understand early on, lest you go crazy: Once the issue hits the presses, there is not a single thing you can do to change the publication. And once something is in print, your mistakes are indelible, there for the world to see. Years ago, when I first started in publishing, I helped start