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April 2013 Volume 9, Issue 4

Volume 9, Issue 4 | April 2013

In this Issue

Contract Services

CROs with global aspirations

Synteract and Harrison Clinical Research close M&A deal to form multinational CRO

East meets West Coast

Japan’s Ajinomoto acquires San Diego- based Althea Technologies for $175 million

Covance, M2Gen play matchmaker

Partnership creates ‘one-stop shop’ for matching patients with biomarker-driven oncology trials

The best of both worlds

Crystal Pharmatech, Particle Sciences to combine drug development expertise

Global News

A powerful injection

Already one of the world’s top generic drugmakers, Mylan bolsters off-patent injectable medicines portfolio with $1.6 billion acquisition of India’s Agila Specialties

The new apple of Shire’s eye

Acquisition of Premacure provides Shire with Phase II compound for rare eye disorder

Six biosimilars for 70 emerging markets

Oncobiologics and Viropro sign collaboration deal around manufacture of monoclonal antibody products

Takeda and Resolve pair up on autoimmunity

Partnership is aimed at developing novel nuclease proteins for treating lupus

RAR-alpha for AD

CoCo Therapeutics created to progress retinoic acid receptor alpha agonist for Alzheimer’s disease

OPKO completes Latin American acquisition

The purchase allows OPKO to expand its Latin American presence, in addition to complementing its business units in Chile and Mexico, and will enable commercialization of the OPKO 4Kscore prostate cancer test in Brazil as a reference laboratory test

Riboxx, CNBG unite in collaboration

A research collaboration has been announced between Riboxx Pharmaceuticals GmbH and China National Biotec Group Co. Ltd. to evaluate Riboxxim, Riboxx’s TLR3 agonist, with an antigen from CNBG against an undisclosed infectious disease target

Diagnostics

Developing a solid BACE

Merck and Luminex team up to develop companion diagnostic in support of BACE inhibitor program for Alzheimer’s disease

SynapDx Corp., Illumina join hands

Partners to develop early diagnostic tests for autism

FISHing for success

New leukemia CDx deal unites Abbott, Janssen, Pharmacyclics

Order out of chaos

AMA and McKesson collaborate on coding for molecular diagnostic testing

DELETED STORY--Stopping RA before it starts

Research partnership seeks high-value biomarkers and diagnostic test for rheumatoid arthritis

Research & Development

Natural neighbors

OSU, Biosortia link up to identify natural products for potential cancer treatments

High-profile oncology partnership

Araxes Pharma and Janssen Biotech ink oncology drug development deal

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

Weill Cornell, Mount Sinai and Beth Israel researchers set sights on biomarkers for chronic fatigue syndrome

Bonded by blood

Global Blood Therapeutics, Array BioPharma form drug discovery collaboration focused on treating blood-based diseases

In-vivo investigators

Presage and Celgene investigate microdoses of drug combos to tackle solid tumors

Commentary

Revolutionizing and personalizing global health

As the complexity and volume of data continue to rise, bioinformatics is emerging as one of the cornerstones of personalized medicine, from enabling discovery and development of novel treatments and diagnostics to facilitating collection, analysis and interpretation of data that ultimately helps an individual patient.

Keeping up is hard to do

In our day, “keeping up with the literature” was an obligation and badge of honor. As our theme, we’ve modified the title of a Neil Sedaka rock tune written at a time when there were only two commercial trade publications devoted to analytical chemistry and no more than six peer-reviewed journals in the field with global significance.

Editor's Focus

Pharma industry pow-wows: Waiting on the smoke signal

Once cross-industry pharma consortiums announce their presence and pledge to continue meeting, we don’t hear much from them. We sit, waiting for the plume of white smoke to emerge, but the skies are still clear for now.

Tools & Technology

In like a laminin, out like a lion

Roche and BioLamina enter laminin-based collaboration to develop novel cell culture systems

Driving stem cells to the clinic

Collaboration enhances characterization of pluripotent stem cells

NEP explores the exosome

New England Peptide acquires next-generation exosome and microvesicle affinity technology for potential detection of cancer and other diseases

A new PREMIER tool

PREMIER Biosoft acquires protein validation and quantification tool

Feature

BIO 2013 show preview: Twenty years strong

Highlights of BIO convention’s big anniversary year include return of orphan diseases forum and new Alzheimer’s forum

BIO 2013: Additonal coverage of the show, BIO news and more photos

More on the BIO 2013 show to be held in Chicago

Top 3 reasons the Supreme Court is sure to be a hot topic at BIO 2013

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide two cases this term that are expected to have broad implications for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries; implications that will surely be discussed at the BIO 2013 conference in Chicago

SPECIAL REPORT: An aside on side effects

Are we really making things better for cancer patients?

April 2013