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July 2005 Volume 1, Issue 5

Volume 1, Issue 5 | July 2005

July 2005

In this Issue

Research & Development

Pfizer’s pipeline purchase: Pfizer feeds pipeline with $1.9 billion buyout of Vicuron

Pfizer Inc. in mid-June announced its $1.9 billion acquisition of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing anti-infectives. Vicuron’s pipeline includes two drugs — anidulafungin, for fungal infections, and dalbavancin, for Gram-positive infections — that Vicuron expects will reach markets in early 2006.

Radiopharmaceutical R&D: MDS Nordion, Macrocyclics collaborate on chelates

Radioisotope company MDS Nordion recently announced an R&D agreement with Dallas-based Macrocyclics to develop bifunctional chelates for use in molecular imaging and targeted therapeutic applications.

New partnership: Organon, Lexicon spell out biologics collaboration

Lexicon Genetics Inc. and Organon announced in late May a long-term multiphase collaboration that leverages their complementary capabilities to discover, develop, and manufacture novel biotherapeutics. The companies will divide evenly eventual product revenues.

Chromos, Pfizer in license deal

Chromos Molecular Systems Inc. in late May entered into a nonexclusive commercial license agreement with Pfizer Inc. Pfizer may now employ Chromos’s ACE (Artificial Chromosome Expression) System in its own labs to develop cell lines that express proteins. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Elixir extends Sirtuin patent portfolio

Elixir Pharmaceuticals recently secured an exclusive license to intellectual property from the regents of the University of California (UC) relating to work done by Dr. Eric Verdin and his research group at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology with SirT1, a member of the sirtuin class of enzymes, and the HIV transcriptional transactivation protein.

Genomics & Proteomics

Affymetrix acquires ParAllele BioScience

In a move that is expected to boost both its GeneChip technology and the assays available for its chips, Affymetrix recently acquired ParAllele BioScience, a privately held, South San Francisco-based company that provides assay technology for comprehensive genetic studies. Initially applied to genotyping, these highly flexible assays have the potential to be used in a broad variety of microarray applications.

ABI, Invitrogen in proteomic pact

Applied Biosystems Inc. and San Diego-based Invitrogen announced in early June a marketing alliance that will offer a suite of labeling products for proteomics researchers that includes Applied Bio’s ITRAQ and ICAT reagents and Invitrogen’s newly-released metabolomic labeling technology SILAC.

Delving into deep proteome: Ciphergen’s service strives to be “PCR of proteins”

At the recent ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry, held in San Antonio, Texas, Ciphergen Biosystems introduced the new Deep Proteome Research Services that bring the company’s Equalizer technology to biomarker discovery and identification.

Novasite acquires PsyCheNomicS

Although it did not disclose the terms of the transaction, Novasite Pharmaceuticals in mid-June announced the acquisition of Boston, Mass.-based PsyCheNomicS, a drug discovery company focused on diseases of the central nervous system (CNS).

Enzo enters life sciences market

In late May, Enzo Life Sciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enzo Biochem, launched a new DNA labeling system aimed at array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), a technique that detects alterations in the genome leading to changes in DNA copy number.

Informatics

Mapping the brain

Just five years after it began a project to develop the next generation of supercomputers, IBM announced in early June a joint research effort with Switzerland’s The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), to begin building a detailed model of the largest and most complex part of the human brain, the neocortex. The project, dubbed “Blue Brain”, will employ the staggering computing capacity of IBM’s eServer Blue Gene supercomputer.

Blueprint debuts data curation

The Blueprint Initiative Asia recently introduced directed data curation services that are designed to deliver to clients defined biomolecular interaction data to facilitate scientific research efforts. These curation services are expected to help scientists identify important biological molecules and complexes, such as drug targets, diagnostic biomarkers, and metabolic processes critical to healthcare.

Wide open for business: Tripos opts for open architecture with service-oriented informatics

Drug discovery informatics provider Tripos Inc. announced plans last month to embrace web services as a key strategic component of its informatics products and future product development strategy.

Waters taps InfoChem: Waters eLab Notebook to integrate InfoChem’s Chemistry Cartridge search technology

Waters Corp. and Munich, Germany-based InfoChem GmbH announced last month that Waters would include InfoChem’s reaction search technology based on Chemistry Cartridge in future generations of its eLab Notebook software.

Tripos becomes SciTegic ISV partner

Data pipeline and workflow tools company SciTegic and Tripos Inc. announced in late June that Tripos joined SciTegic’s independent software vendor (ISV) partner program to provide software compatibility between their product lines.

Automation & Instrumentation

Biotage finalizes its purchase of Argonaut

A special meeting of Argonaut shareholders in early June formally approved the sale of the company’s assets and consumables and process instrument business to Biotage, a move that strengthens the company’s offerings in medicinal chemistry, thermal synthesis, cleanup and purification systems. Total purchase price amounted to 145 million Swedish krona or about $21.2 million. In all, sales from Argonaut products are expected to add over $18 million in annual sales to Biotage’s bottom line, an increase of roughly 25 percent.

Agilent acquires Scientific Software

In a deal expected to close earlier this month, Agilent Technologies recently announced it signed a merger agreement with scientific information management company Scientific Software Inc. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Neutron activation device nets Phase I SBIR grant for BioPAL

BioPhysics Assay Laboratory (BioPAL) announced in mid-June that the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health had awarded the company a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant.