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December 2011 Volume 7, Issue 12

Volume 7, Issue 12 | December 2011

In this Issue

Research & Development

Plug-and-play deal

Acute-care therapy developer Cubist Pharmaceuticals to acquire pain management specialist Adolor in deal valued at up to $415 million

Making a spark, igniting a fire

Michael J. Fox Foundation partners with Kinetics Foundation in search of biomarker in Parkinson’s disease

Two heads are better than one

California’s stem cell agency joins forces with NIH to advance stem cell research

Another brick in the wall

NeoStem closes acquisition of Amorcyte, another step in its drive toward cell therapy focus

Done deal times two

ViroPharma agrees to buy DuoCort Pharma weeks before its orphan drug Plenadren is granted European Marketing Authorization for adrenal insufficiency

Contract Services

Doing some corporate stock-up shopping

Seeking to fill gaps and extend reach, Quintiles acquires three companies in October and November

WuXi buys in its backyard

CRO purchases two China-based clinical research services companies

Injecting strength into the business

Germany’s Evonik buys SurModics Pharmaceuticals to bolster North America presence

Repligen acquires Novozymes Biopharma

Company strengthens position as supplier of products for manufacturing biologic drugs; expects near-term, sustainable profitability

Design, make, test

U.K.’s Sygnature Discovery, Saretius launch strategic alliance aimed at treating CNS disorders, inflammatory diseases

Omics & Systems Biology

Getting to the heart of the matter

Servier, miRagen team up on cardiovascular disease therapeutics

A high-'Profile' partnership

Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's undertake genomics research project

A gram better way to do things

Powerful SomaLogic proteomic technology to be applied to biomarker discovery, target discovery and validation and lead to ‘wellness’ chip

Start spreading the news

New York Genome Center launches collaboration of 11 leading medical/research institutions

Adding tools to the toolbox

Horizon, Promega forge predictive disease model pact

Diagnostics

Being 'companionable' with new immunotherapy

Life Technologies signs agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, seeking expanded use of platform technologies into companion diagnostics

A full work-up for Alzheimer’s disease

Exonhit taps Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center to conduct AclarusDx test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

Pancreatic cancer biomarkers sought

Oxford Gene Technology and Abcodia combine expertise to search for better biomarkers for the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

Your halo is showing

Sweden's Halo Genomics and Uppsala University collaborate on study to identify mutations that cause colon cancer

Global News

Taking direct action

Roche makes $230 million offer for antiviral developer Anadys; shareholders challenge the offer in court

Bomb meets bomber in new deal

Oxford BioMedica takes glaucoma research from Mayo Clinic to explosive new level with agreement to develop gene therapy

Cancer deaths in Korea

Institut Pasteur Korea and Sanofi look for small-molecule antiviral to combat HBV

Not ‘immune’ to each other’s charm

Biogen, Portola ink agreement for autoimmune therapeutics

Two against the flu

Alios BioPharma and Versitech Ltd. announce exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for influenza technology

Commentary

Data management that speeds—rather than impedes—advanced DNA sequencing applications

How labs choose to manage their data may very well determine which have the most success in applying DNA sequencing to the development of advanced molecular diagnostics and therapeutics.

On biobanking: Deposits and withdrawals

It is encouraging to see the challenge of well-documented samples being met using electronic medical records to make queries more feasible and less costly.

Editor's Focus

Out with the old, in with many new features to ddn

It’s difficult to believe we’re about to put our final issue of 2011 to press, but as we don our gay apparel, pour some celebratory eggnog and give this edition a final polish, we have a rare few moments to pause and reflect on another editorial year gone by.

December 2011