Home / Archive / May 2007

May 2007 Volume 3, Issue 5

Volume 3, Issue 5 | May 2007

In this Issue

News Briefs

Informatics

Ancient Chinese secret?

Informatics tools at King’s College show remarkable drug potential in many Chinese herbal remedies

Go East, young man

Promega collaboration to help advance discovery science in China

Bringing it together

Waters Corp. and Symyx Technologies collaborate on research lab software

BIOBASE coordinates international effort on informatics toolbox

In a three-year, 3 million Euro deal, life sciences knowledge solutions provider BIOBASE will coordinate a European Union research contract to develop innovative technology to analyze complex disease mechanisms.

Automation & Instrumentation

Coming home to roost

Illumina to shutter facility that spawned latest tech platform and consolidate work at its home campus

No longer simply a wax museum

NuGEN, Affymetrix to unlock FFPE samples for gene expression on standard arrays

PerkinElmer acquires U.K.-based Improvision

Company plans to marry its products with those of recently acquired Evotec

Genomics & Proteomics

Qiagen expands genetic offerings

DNA Methylation deal

Cancer detection targeted as Clinical Data\'s Cogenics division will offer Epigenomics\' DNA methylation service

Kinase contract

Emiliem selects Invitrogen for kinase inhibitor work

Special delivery: ProNAi turns to Novosom

Collaboration to join ProNAi\'s CNAi anticancer therapeutic with Novosom\'s delivery technology

Research & Development

Stepping up the pace

Virtual pharma and nonprofit collaborate to accelerate drugs for resistant infections

Antiviral acquisition

Inhibitex picks up FermaVir\'s antiviral pipeline for $24.5 million

Avanir restructures, ends big pharma deals

As it announces work on a restructuring plan, Avanir Pharmaceuticals is also announcing that it is ending relationships with two big pharma companies, AstraZeneca and Novartis—a direction that runs counter to what many perceive as the path to success for small- and mid-size biotech companies.

BrainCells enters collaboration with Lundbeck to screen CNS targets

BrainCells Inc. announced in late March a research collaboration with H. Lundbeck A/S under which BrainCells is screening central nervous system targets and compounds from Lundbeck’s library using its neurogenesis-based technology.

Global News

Abbott opens new biotech facility in Puerto Rico

Mid-April saw the opening of a new Abbott Laboratories biologics manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico to support the long-term supply of its leading biologic agent Humira as well as other future biologics.

Sciele Pharma to acquire Alliant for $22 million cash.

Sciele Pharma Inc. recently reached an agreement to acquire Alliant Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held pediatric specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., in a deal under which Sciele will pay $122 million in cash. In turn, Alliant Pharmaceuticals is expected to generate revenues of approximately $50 million to $60 million for the full-year 2007 for Sciele.

INC Research boosts infectious disease work buying Advanced Biologics.

INC Research, a therapeutically focused contract research organization (CRO), recently announced the strategic acquisition of Advanced Biologics to strengthen its infectious disease practice. Advanced Biologics is a full-service CRO specializing in full-service clinical development to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries worldwide.

Cognia to create operations and development center in Scotland.

Cognia, a database specialist for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, has announced its plans to create a new operations center in Edinburgh. The new center will be responsible for commercializing and deploying text mining systems that help PhD-level curators analyze large quantities of scientific text to identify and extract valuable information.

Phenomenex seeks expansion with two acquisitions in Europe.

Looking to expand its European Union market presence and strengthen its brand identity, Phenomenex Inc. is acquiring what it calls two “successful, customer-focused distributors in chromatography consumables”: Bologna, Italy-based Chemtek Analytica S.R.L., a subsidiary of Labservice Analytica S.R.L., and privatelyheld SupWare, headquartered in Hilleroed, Denmark. Financial terms were not disclosed.