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BioMinds LifeSciences announces the release of PathoOligoDBTM, a free data bank of validated qPCR oligos and related resources for pathogen detection.
Hyderabad, India - BioMinds LifeSciences Pvt Ltd., Hyderabad, India, announced the release of one of its pioneering products for researchers working on pathogen detection using qPCR in laboratories around the globe. PathoOligoDB(TM) is an extensive and carefully curated database containing a wide array of information on pathogen detection using the widely applied qPCR technique.
The product is absolutely free for academic use and currently holds curated information of bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens. As of now, PathoOligoDB(TM) contains about 2978 specific oligos for 1023 pathogenic genes reported in about 150 pathogenic organisms, 1200 specific sample information and 1455 enzymes from about 35 journals. Besides this, researchers will also find extensive information on relevant experimental recipes such as buffers, other chemicals and reagents, and relevant vendor information for the resources mentioned.
PathoOligoDB(TM) is equipped with an innovative algorithm to quickly search for the oligos and related resources based on search filtering specified by the user. Users can search for oligos using the pathogen name, gene symbol, assay application, oligo sequence information, PubMed ID, oligo design vendors, and types of popular detection chemistries such as: TaqMan®, TaqMan MGB, Molecular Beacon, SYBR® Green, LNA®, and FRET etc.
"According to ABRF 2007 Nucleic Acid Research Group Survey⠬ qPCR is the third most opted pathogen detection approach among researchers around the world. We have designed PathoOligoDB(TM) after understanding the importance and the demand for instant information on optimized oligos, which would save the valuable time and cost involved in manual designing of oligos.⠬ says Dr. Ravi Kumar, Director of BioMinds LifeSciences Pvt Ltd. He invites the researchers to submit the validated oligos data to further strengthen the database and make it available for the research community.
Learn more about PathoOligoDB(TM)at : www.pathooligodb.com
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Helix BioPharma Chairman resigns
AURORA - Helix BioPharma Corp. announced that Jerome F. McElroy has resigned as Chairman and a director of the Company to pursue his retirement interests.
"Jerry has had a long involvement with the Company since its amalgamation
in 1995," said Don Segal, President and Chief Executive Officer. "On behalf of
the Company, I thank him for his positive contributions and wish him well with
his future endeavors."
The Company has entered into an agreement with Mr. McElroy in respect of
his resignation, pursuant to which Mr. McElroy will receive the equivalent of
approximately one year's salary and benefits in a lump sum payment made today
of $350,000, plus termination payments for one year of $3,000 per month and
contributions to his medical benefits of $12,000 per year for four years.
The Company will designate a new Chairman to succeed Mr. McElroy in the
near term.
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Helix Biopharma announces addition of University of Arizona professor Kenneth Hatch as new medical advisor
AURORA - Helix BioPharma Corp. announced the addition of Kenneth D. Hatch, M.D., as a new medical advisor to the Company. Dr. Hatch will provide guidance to Helix on its clinical-stage compound, Topical Interferon Alpha-2b, for the treatment of conditions caused by HPV. Dr. Hatch is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Arizona.
"Dr. Hatch complements our medical advisory team and brings additional
strength to Helix' expertise in the field of gynecology and pre-invasive
diseases of the cervix", said John Docherty, vice president, corporate
development at Helix. "We are very pleased to establish this relationship with
Dr. Hatch, and expect that he will be an invaluable asset to the Company as we
continue to move forward with the preparations for our planned IND/CTA filings
for Topical Interferon Alpha-2b".
Previously, Dr. Hatch was president of the American Society of Colposcopy
and Cervical Pathology. Dr. Hatch has also presided as secretary-treasurer of
the International Federation of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and as
president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.
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Biotech Hall of Fame Inductees Announced
Outstanding Companies, Individuals, and Scientific Achievements are
Honored at the 20th Biotech Meeting, Laguna Niguel
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.- At the 20th Annual Biotech Meeting at Laguna Niguel, a biotech CEO-only conference hosted by Burrill & Company and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, inductees into the Biotech Hall of Fame were announced at an Awards Dinner held here Sunday evening.
For twenty years, the CEOs of the biotech industry have recognized the
outstanding achievements of the past year, heralding colleagues, companies
behind the scientific breakthroughs and business success. To commemorate the
20th year of the Biotech meeting CEO's voted on a slate of nominees for three
categories: Leading Company, Special Recognition for an Individual, and
Scientific Achievement. The nominees were selected by G. Steven Burrill, CEO,
Burrill & Company, Brook Byers, Senior Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield &
Byers and a special advisory committee. Unlike the previous award processes,
the nominations were not made on the basis of the past year's performance but
their total contribution to the biotechnology industry. The inductees are:
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Leading Company
Celgene Inc.
Lead products include THALOMID for the treatment and suppression of
cutaneous manifestations of erythema nodosum leprosum, an inflammatory
complication of leprosy. The company's products also include REVLIMID
for the treatment of patients with transfusion-dependent anemia.
Current market cap is $28 billion.
Idexx Pharmaceuticals
A leader in innovative products and services for a variety of
veterinary, food and water applications. Their companion animal and
equine businesses combine biotechnology with medical devices and
information technology to support veterinarians.
Illumina Inc.
Developer, manufacturer and marketer of next-generation life-science
tools and integrated systems for the large-scale analysis of genetic
variation and biological function.
Onyx Pharmaceuticals
Developer of innovative small molecule cancer treatments based on a
molecular understanding of cancer. Onyx's lead product is Nexavar(R)
(sorafenib) tablets, an oral multiple kinase inhibitor that targets
proteins involved in both tumor cell proliferation and angiogenesis
(the formation of new blood vessels to support cancer cell growth).
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
The Company is leading the development of the HCV protease inhibitor,
telaprevir (VX-950), and in 2007 is conducting a broad Phase 2
clinical program of this drug candidate. Vertex is also focused on the
development of VX-702, a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor for the treatment of
rheumatoid arthritis, and VX-770, an investigational drug candidate
for cystic fibrosis.
>>
<<
Special Recognition for an Individual
Jim Greenwood, President and CEO, Biotechnology Industry Organization
(BIO)
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic
institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in
all 50 U.S. states and 31 other nations.
Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann, President, Product Development, Genentech
Inc.
Genentech is one of the biotech industry's leading companies and Dr.
Desmond-Hellmann has overseen the development of several promising
cancer drugs and the final testing phase of others.
John C. Martin, President and CEO, Gilead Sciences Inc.
Dr. Martin joined Gilead Sciences in 1990 and has served as President
and Chief Executive Officer since 1996. The company has expanded
rapidly over the past two decades, with annual revenues now exceeding
$3 billion
Ed Penhoet, Co-Founder of Chiron Corp.
He was president and CEO of the prominent biotechnology company until
May 1998. He has held leadership positions in the biotechnology
industry and in academia, and is currently vice chair of the
state-appointed board overseeing California's $3 billion stem cell
research initiative.
Hollings C. Renton, Chairman, President and CEO, Onyx Pharmaceuticals He has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the company since 1993. Prior to joining Onyx, Mr. Renton was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Chiron Corporation.
Scientific Achievement
Harold E. Varmus and J. Michael Bishop
Co-recipients of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
their discovery of the cellular origins of retroviral oncogenes. They
directed the research that led to the discovery of proto-oncogenes --
normal genes that can be converted to cancer genes by genetic damage.
This work eventually led to the recognition that all cancer probably
arises from damage to normal genes, and provided new strategies for
the detection and treatment of cancer.
Francis Collins
Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He led the successful effort
to complete Human Genome Project (HGP), a complex multidisciplinary
scientific enterprise directed at mapping and sequencing all the human
DNA, and determining aspects of its function.
Napoleone Ferrera
Dr. Ferrara and his team of scientists at Genentech Inc. made a
groundbreaking discovery that added greatly to our understanding and
treatment of cancer. It was the identification and cloning of a gene
termed vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, which produces a
protein that plays a critical role in angiogenesis.
Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello
Co-recipients of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
their discovery of RNA interference -- gene silencing by
double-stranded RNA. RNA interference occurs in plants, animals, and
humans. It is of great importance for the regulation of gene
expression, participates in defense against viral infections, and
keeps jumping genes under control. RNA interference is widely used in
basic science as a method to study the function of genes and it may
lead to novel therapies.
Robert Langer
In 1999 Forbes magazine named Prof. Langer, Department of Chemical
Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as one of the 25
most important individuals in biotechnology in the world. His work is
at the interface of biotechnology and materials science. A major focus
is the study and development of polymers to deliver drugs,
particularly genetically engineered proteins, DNA and RNAi,
continuously at controlled rates for prolonged periods of time.
>>
"There is no greater recognition than that of one's peers," commented G.
Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company, "and we are delighted to recognize
these outstanding inductees to the Biotech Hall of Fame."
The Biotech Meeting at Laguna Niguel is the premier industry conference
exclusively for CEOs of biotechnology companies. The Biotech Meeting (now in
its 20th year) is held annually at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel
(Southern California). It is running October 8-9, 2007 and over 250 leading
biotech CEOs have gathered to share management ideas, set an agenda for the
industry and network with each other.
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Helix BioPharma awarded U.S. Patent for DOS47 adjunct chemotherapy applications
AURORA - Helix BioPharma Corp. announced the issuance of its second DOS47 patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,264,800) from the United States Patent & Trademark Office, describing a method and composition for combining targeted DOS47 therapeutics with weakly basic chemotherapeutic drugs in adjunct treatment applications.
"This patent offers a significant extension to Helix's DOS47 intellectual
property position, opening up the possibility for expanded commercial
opportunities," said Dr. Donald H. Segal, President and CEO of Helix. "We
believe there is significant market potential to combine DOS47-based
therapeutics with certain chemotherapeutic drugs in so-called adjunct regimens
because DOS47 therapy is designed to counteract tumor acidity. Tumor acidity
is a property that otherwise makes it difficult for weakly basic
chemotherapeutics to penetrate cancer cells and function effectively."
With the granting of this second DOS47 patent, Helix now has patent
protection covering the use of targeted DOS47-based therapeutics alone and in
certain combined chemotherapy applications. Moving forward, the Company
intends to pursue the development of DOS47 therapies for both applications,
with a view to maximizing its DOS47 commercialization potential.
At present, Helix is focused on the development of its first DOS47-based
cancer therapeutic ("L-DOS47") which specifically targets lung adenocarcinoma.
Helix has previously presented scientific findings which demonstrated the
ability of L-DOS47 to destroy lung cancer cells alone and synergistically with
selected chemotherapeutic compounds. Helix continues to advance its
manufacturing and preclinical development programs with a view to phase I
human clinical testing. With this newly issued patent, the Company is
well-positioned to potentially broaden its late stage clinical development
program to include both monotherapy and combined chemotherapy applications for
L-DOS47.
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Arthrovision Inc., a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Horizon Sciences & Technologies Files Patent Infringement Action Against Chondrometrics GmbH and its CEO Dr. Felix Eckstein
MONTREAL, QUEBEC- ArthroVision Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Sciences & Technologies Inc. has filed a patent infringement complaint before the District Court of Munich, Germany, accusing Chondrometrics of infringing the German part of ArthroVision's European patent (EP) 1 230 561 B1. The patent protects a system and method for evaluating disease progression using magnetic resonance imaging. In the complaint, ArthroVision alleges inter alia that Chondrometrics' software "Chondrometrics_work", designed to segment and evaluate magnetic resonance images, makes use of claim 11 and contributes to infringe claim 1 of ArthroVision's patent.
The invention of EP 1 230 561 B1 can in particular be used for pursuing the course of osteoarthritis of a patient when the respective patient is treated with a certain drug. Claim 1 and 11 of EP 1 230 561 B1 relate to a system and method by which magnetic resonance imaging data is obtained, e.g. of an anatomical object such as a joint. These data are then transformed into three dimensional data. A comparison module eventually compares the so transformed images which are being generated successively. By this process, quantitative differences of the anatomic object can be detected. The invention can therefore be used to evaluate differences for example in the cartilage thickness and volume over a certain period of time, and eventually enable to keep track of the evolution of the cartilage of the diseased joint.
The complaint, serves to protect ArthroVision's intellectual property since ArthroVision is committed to continue to develop innovative tools for the evaluation and the measurement of cartilage changes. ArthroVision believes to be the first to having developed an MRI system capable of making reliable quantitative measurements of cartilage loss attributable to disease in human and veterinary patients.
Facts about Horizon Sciences & Technologies Inc. and its subsidiary ArthroVision Inc.:
Horizon Sciences & Technologies Inc. is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, located in Montreal (Quebec) which has the role of discovering and of developing, in collaboration with its partners, new drugs and innovative technologies in the field of the prevention, the diagnosis and the treatment of osteoarthritis. Its subsidiary, ArthroVision Inc., a Montreal, Quebec, Canada based company, is engaged in the research and development of imaging technology to assess the effect of therapeutics in the treatment of osteoarthritis. ArthroVision has developed a system that allows the precise measurement of cartilage thickness and volume from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and the tracking of cartilage degradation over time. This technology is unique and represents a breakthrough for osteoarthritis research. ArthroVision has expertise in conducting clinical trials for the assessment of the efficacy of new drug compounds that aim at reducing the progression of osteoarthritis.
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Bruker BioSpin Announces the Avance III
NanoBay, the Most Highly Integrated State-of-the-Art NMR
Spectrometer
TOKYO - At JAIMA 2007, Bruker BioSpin announces the introduction of the new Avance(tm) III NanoBay, the most highly integrated state-of-the-art NMR spectrometer ever. The novel NanoBay design puts Bruker's high-performance Avance III NMR spectrometer technology into an exceptionally compact enclosure.
Moreover, the NanoBay offers a Microsoft Windows-based intuitive routine user interface (LINUX option), and now also features a choice of Japanese and Chinese graphical user interfaces and language support. It delivers high productivity and highest-quality NMR information for pharmaceutical and industrial chemists, for academic research and teaching, as well as for food analysis, diagnostics research and other small molecule applications.
Available in combination with Bruker BioSpin's UltraShield(tm) Plus 300
and 400 MHz magnets, the NanoBay allows easy siting in non-NMR
laboratories even when space is limited. The NanoBay supports a wide
range of small molecule applications from high- throughput screening
routines for quality control in analytical chemistry and food science
to structure verification in drug discovery. In academia, the NanoBay
is the ideal system for chemistry research as well as to introduce
students to the fascinating world of NMR.
The NanoBay incorporates the recently introduced Avance III technology,
which permits an unprecedented level of digital control, exceptionally
pure NMR frequency generation and unprecedented speed and flexibility.
Ease of use is provided through the use of Bruker's TopSpin(tm) NMR
software and IconNMR(tm) automation interface, with automation options
that can be tailored to the throughput needs of each laboratory.
"The Nanobay combines the forward-thinking electronics of the Avance
III architecture in a small and very user-friendly package," stated Mr.
Takeo Domoto, NMR Sales Director of Bruker BioSpin Japan. "It is
designed to maximize information gain and productivity in an optimized
workspace, yet without any compromises in performance. We are very
pleased to be able to offer Japanese software on this exciting new
system."
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TapImmune Inc. Announces Agreement With AppTec
FDA Registered Facility to Begin Testing On Company's Novel
Cancer Vaccine
VANCOUVER, British Columbia- TapImmune Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in the development of immunotherapeutics for cancer and vaccines for infectious diseases, announced a contractual agreement with AppTec, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, for the preclinical testing of its lead product.
The immunotherapy vaccine is designed to treat a wide variety of carcinomas that include lung cancers, liver cancers, kidney cancers, head and neck cancers, breast cancers, melanomas, prostate cancers, colorectal cancers, and cervical cancers. This is the first stage in moving the Company's proprietary vaccine from the research laboratory into clinical investigation.
Once AppTec certifies the vaccine as sterile and free of contamination,
TapImmune will move forward with the production of commercial grade
vaccine in FDA approved facilities to commence pre-clinical work,
toxicology and Phase I clinical trials.
"This partnership signifies the first step on our clinical critical
path," said Denis Corin, CEO and President of TapImmune Inc. "Moving
our product from the research laboratory and into FDA regulated
facilities for testing signifies our commitment to advance this
research and bring to market a product which we believe will have a
significant impact on the battle against cancer."
"AppTec is very pleased that TapImmune has chosen to partner with us in
this next phase of development for their new vaccine," said Bonnie
Baskin, CEO of AppTec, "and we are excited to play a role in helping to
advance such an important product closer to market."
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MONTREAL - Over 300 leaders
from the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries gathered in Montreal
to hear about the latest discoveries and trends in research and commercial
applications in the rapidly emerging field of protein-based therapeutics at
the 2007 Crossroad of Biotechnology.
Hosted by the National Research Council Biotechnology Research Institute
(NRC-BRI), the event highlighted some exceptional recent developments in
biotherapeutic research. During the first session, chaired by Dr. Daniel
Chelsky of Caprion Proteomics, renowned speakers presented insider's view into
the development of antibodies. The second session Protein therapeutics,
chaired by Dr. Maureen O'Connor of NRC-BRI, reviewed new discoveries and
trends. "The co-development of therapeutics and diagnostics leads to
personalized medicine, a new way of thinking about therapy", Dr. O'Connor
explained. Presentations in the third session, Protein and Peptide Mimetics,
chaired by Dr. Philippe Walker of AstraZeneca, outlined strategies for further
reducing the size of therapeutic proteins.
Protein-based therapeutics have now reached a level of maturity which will allow for the next wave of breakthroughs. According to Bernard Prigent, of Pfizer Inc., honorary president for the event, "it is estimated that biotherapeutics will generate a global market of about US$100 billion by 2010. Still, further efforts are required as ways need to be found to develop partnerships that link researchers, industry, governments, policy makers, and health systems managers so that the fruits of innovation are quickly and appropriately taken into health systems and reach those that need them".
During the BioTransfer session, private sector stakeholders were presented with 24 ready-for-licensing revolutionary technologies specially selected by NRC-BRI and the McGill Office of Technology Transfer. Among them were discoveries disclosing biologicals exhibiting efficacy in chronic wounds healing and powerful potent anticoagulants to prevent pathogenic blood coagulation, which is a major cause of death in western societies. As highlighted by NRC-BRI's General Director and Chair of the session, Dr. Michel Desrochers, "NRC-BRI and McGill University are two key players in intellectual property creation in biotechnology and we were very pleased by the enthusiastic response of private companies to acquire new technologies."
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Funding remains crucial for Canadian biotech industry
OTTAWA - Canadian life science and biotechnology companies continue to demonstrate the importance of funding for the biotech industry in Canada. According to the 2007 Canadian Life Sciences Industry Forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) created in collaboration with BIOTECanada, securing financing is crucial to the success of Canadian companies.
Of the biotech companies surveyed, the majority are looking to raise
$10 million in their next round of financing and more then 40% intend to seek
more than $20 million. Access to capital was ranked as the number one barrier
to successful commercialization of intellectual property by 78% of those
surveyed.
"Biotech companies require a significant amount of capital to take their
ideas through the regulatory and development process to turn them into
commercial products," says John DeLucchi, National Leader, Life Sciences Group
of PwC. "The importance of funding will continue to be a key component to a
successful Canadian biotech industry."
Achieving financial success is still years away for most Canadian biotech
companies. However, 57% of respondents generate revenues and 68% expect
profits within five years. This is a positive trend compared to 2006 survey
results, where only 46% of companies generated revenues and 60% expected
profits within five years.
Over two-thirds of respondents identified the creation of favourable tax
incentives as the most important action the government can take to improve the
industry's standing in the global market. Improving the speed of the
regulatory process and providing research grants for companies were also
identified as ways the government can improve Canada's global market standing.
"Biotechnology development is maturing in Canada and it is clear the
federal government has a pivotal role to play in securing this industry," says
Peter Brenders, President and CEO of BIOTECanada. "We need to continue to
improve the competitiveness of our Canadian biotech companies in the global
market."
The 2007 survey also showed respondents are increasingly expecting their
funding to come from strategic partners, as opposed to venture capital
sources. More than 30% identified their next source of funding to come from
strategic partners compared to only 18% last year.
The survey further found that after access to capital, high-level human
resources issues were of great importance. Respondents cited the need to
access an experienced talent pool as one of their critical success factors.
They also identified attaining and attracting key employees as one of their
most challenging issue along with the availability of experienced senior
management as a barrier to successful commercialization of intellectual
property.
DeLucchi notes, "Recruiting experienced senior management in the biotech
space is probably the most important action that the industry can take to
improve Canada's ability to compete globally."
The results of this survey are based on responses from 92 individuals who
completed the Forecast survey. Respondents included a national cross-section
of public and private emerging life science companies, senior management of
providers of capital to the industry as well as senior public officials
involved with research institutes and government.
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Tikvah Therapeutics Enters an Exclusive Licensing Agreement With Apkarian Technologies Related to Agents for Treatment of Pain and Pain-Related Indications
ATLANTA - Tikvah Therapeutics, Inc. and Chicago-based Apkarian Technologies, LLC announced that Tikvah has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Apkarian for patents and patent applications involving certain agonists of specific sites of the NMDA receptor.
These newly-acquired rights provide Tikvah with claims encompassing the
chronic treatment of pain and pain-related indications with glycine
receptor agonists as a monotherapy or in combination therapy with
certain other agents. This new license further broadens Tikvah's
existing intellectual property estate.
The subject of this agreement is technology developed by Dr. A. Vania
Apkarian, who is a leading researcher in the area of pain and
perception. This work has suggested that treatment with certain classes
of glycine receptor agonists, alone or in combination with other
agents, can be used to treat chronic pain as well as modify the
structural brain changes that occur under conditions of chronic pain.
"We are delighted that Tikvah Therapeutics sees the potential benefit
of our technologies for the treatment of chronic pain," said Dr. A.
Vania Apkarian, President of Apkarian Technologies, LLC and Professor
of Physiology, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern
University.
Dr. Apkarian's studies of various brain processes in humans and animals
using non-invasive brain imaging techniques coupled with brain
electrophysiology and knowledge of neural networks afford a
differentiated approach to our understanding of the perception of touch
and pain.
"We believe that the technology developed by Dr. Apkarian represents a
promising approach to the treatment of certain types of chronic pain,"
said Dr. Harold H. Shlevin, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Tikvah Therapeutics, Inc. "We are excited to explore clinical
applications of these technologies to alleviate human suffering,
especially by advancing clinical approaches to better treat chronic
pain."
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The City of Biotechnology and Human Health of Metropolitan Montreal signs two cooperative agreements with Spain
LAVAL, QC - Robert A. Dubé, president and CEO of the City of Biotechnology and Human Health of Metropolitan Montreal, announced earlier today that cooperative agreements have been signed with two of Spain's top scientific parks specializing in biotechnology, namely the Barcelona Science Park (University of Barcelona) and the Madrid Science Park (Community of Madrid).
The first agreement with the Parc Cientific de Barcelona, or Barcelona
Science Park (PCB), was signed on July 4 during the International Association
of Science Parks (IASP) World Conference in Barcelona. Mr. Dubé was present to
co-moderate a round-table discussion on the future of industrial parks in
North America. He took advantage of his time in the Catalonian capital to sign
an agreement with Fernando Albericio, executive director of the PCB, to
encourage a greater exchange of information and ideas between the research
centres and companies in the PCB and the Biotech City.
This agreement formalizes the arrangement entered into in October 2003 by
the Quebec Biotechnology Innovation Centre (QBIC) and the PCB Bioincubator to
develop commercial ties between the companies in the organizations' incubation
programs. According to Mr. Dubé, the special relationship between Metropolitan
Montreal and Catalonia will provide a framework for all discussions aimed at
promoting biotech-related innovation, whether they involve sharing best
practices in regional development or working together to bring mutually
beneficial global initiatives to fruition.
In addition, Mr. Dubé and Aurelio Garcia de Sola y Arriaga, director of
the Instituto Madrileno de Desarrollo (IMADE), signed on July 6 a formal
agreement setting out the terms for a partnership between the Madrid Science
Park and the Biotech City. Under this two-year agreement, both partners will
work together to actively promote and disseminate each other's innovation and
regional development initiatives. For Mr. Dubé, this is an important strategic
move: "The Community of Madrid cluster consists of over 400 companies and has
created some 24,000 jobs in the life sciences field. This partnership
therefore represents some very interesting opportunities in terms of potential
results. To make the most of them, we will coordinate our efforts through a
yearly plan, the execution of which will be overseen by a committee composed
of professionals appointed by the two organizations. We are confident that the
outcomes will reflect the high quality of our respective groups in the life
sciences sector."
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Big business bets on 'bio-refineries' for nation's fuel needs
Innovation in biotech: It's not just about drug development anymore.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -As the world gets hungrier for alternative fuels, industrial energy giants are scrambling to form partnerships with niche biotech companies. The race is on to create bioengineered enzymes that are at the heart of cost-effective ways of turning corn, sugar and even wood chips into a gasoline substitute called cellulosic ethanol.
Already, the field has attracted players representing Big Chemical (DuPont), Big Oil (Royal Dutch Shell) and Big Agriculture (Syngenta). Each of them has aligned with small companies like Verenium Corp., Codexis Inc. and Novozymes A/S catering to the growing market for "enzyme cocktails" that can produce ethanol faster and cheaper.
"We think the ethanol revolution is taking place here and it's here to stay," said Charles Holliday Jr., DuPont's chairman and chief executive.
In turn, groups like DuPont have linked up with companies specialized in building alternative-fuel refineries, some of which also make enzymes.
According to a recent study by Burrill & Co., the market for such ethanol- producing enzymes is expected to reach $1.1 billion nearly a decade from now vs. about $100 million in 2007.
By Holliday's reckoning, cellulosic ethanol would yield 30% more per acre over traditional ethanol production because it's based on using whole plants, not just their grains.
Besides the nation's push to wean Americans off of foreign oil, the quest for cellulosic ethanol seeks to address concerns that the U.S. can't grow enough corn to produce enough traditional, corn-based ethanol to meet demand without eating into the food supply.
Most ethanol is produced from corn kernels, using a process akin to distilling beer and other alcohol from gains.
But replacing even a fraction of our gasoline consumption with any type of ethanol appears daunting.
Americans this year will pump about 145 billion gallons of gasoline into cars, trucks and lawn mowers. Meantime, ethanol sales are on pace to reach 7 billion gallons, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the world's leading biotech trade group.
Aiming to make ethanol "cost-competitive" with gasoline, President Bush has set a goal of producing 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels, which would meet 20% of the nation's gasoline demands, by 2017. To get there, ethanol makers must stop relying on corn alone, experts say.
From white to green
That's why investors in the industry are getting excited about an obscure form of biotechnology known as industrial or "white" biotech. Unlike their cousins who work for drug developers, white biotech companies focus on using living components, such as bio-engineered microbes and enzymes, as agents that speed key industrial processes. In the case of ethanol, they're looking at ways to use enzymes to break down tough plant fibers, liberating the industry from its dependence on corn.
Billed as a next-generation form of alternative fuel, cellulosic ethanol can be derived from a wide range of organic sources known as feedstocks or biomass.
They include agricultural waste or crops grown specifically for fuel, such as sawgrass. In addition, most of a plant could be used, instead of just the easy- to-process grain portion, so an ear of corn's cob, stalk, husk and leaves are all thrown in.
Major corporations that have a hand in agriculture or petroleum-based industries have expressed growing interest in cellulosic fuels, hoping to stake a claim on the biofuel frontier. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) , Abengoa SA ( ABGOF) and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) have joined forces with enzyme makers and traditional ethanol companies to fund research and develop an early generation of bio-refineries.
For all the excitement generated by the innovations, experts caution that the road to cellulosic ethanol has a ways to go.
As Alan Shaw, CEO of enzyme developer Codexis quipped, if the earth had created enzymes that could easily break down cellulose, "Our forests would all be lakes of goo."
The role of industrial biotech companies in the quest for cellulosic ethanol is to grab the evolutionary torch from Mother Nature and create micro-organisms that can produce the living enzymes necessary to break down cellulose into sugars, which are then fermented into alcohol. The ethanol is then mixed, up to 10% of volume, with gasoline.
"In the case of conventional ethanol, you're looking at feedstock sources where the sugars have already been highly concentrated, whereas in cellulosic ethanol, the sugars are less accessible," said Carlos Riva, CEO Verenium Corp. ( VRNM) .
"That's really where the differences in production come in. In cellulosic ethanol, you need to put a lot of effort into breaking down the biomass," Riva added.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Verenium, with a market cap of $245 million, was recently created through the merger of Celunol, an ethanol production company, and enzyme specialists Diversa Corp. It was just awarded a U.S. Energy Department contract, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to develop new biomass enzymes.
Riva sees Bush's ethanol ambitions as a guide to how huge the market could be.
"This is really about a race to market," said Riva, adding that the goal of 32 billion to 35 billion gallons of ethanol a year, assuming a rate of $2 a gallon, would add up to about a $70 billion market.
"What we're trying to do, with our competitors ... is to try to grab a piece of that," Riva said.
DuPont, the former parent of oil giant Conoco, in getting a piece of the action.
"Fuels is an enormous marketplace," said John Pierce, the company's vice president for biotechnology. "And it's not like two or three companies are going to dominate the marketplace."
Drug industry ties
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the newness of the field, the cellulosic ethanol game has attracted an eclectic roster of players.
Privately-held Codexis, which counts Shell as a client, also makes biological products to aid in industrial and pharmaceutical production. Two other well- known players, Genencor and Novozymes A/S (NVZMY) , are the offspring of major Danish corporations: Genencor is a division of food ingredients specialist Danisco A/S (DNSOF) while Novozymes was spun off of drugmaker Novo-Nordisk A/S ( NVO) .
"What Shell wants us to do is design an industrial process that will work economically today and will compete with oil," said Codexis executive Shaw. His company, he says, "literally designs enzymes from scratch."
Also on the scene is Dyadic International Inc. (DYAD) . The company struck a partnership with Spanish technology behemoth Abengoa, whose U.S. biofuels division, Abengoa Bioenergy, recently won an Energy Department grant to build an 11.4 million gallons-a-year ethanol plant in Kansas that will use corn stover, wheat straw, switchgrass and other feedstocks.
Verenium, meanwhile, wants to be a next-generation fuel company. The industrial biotech group has gone into business DuPont and Syngenta Ag (SYT) , a Swiss agricultural conglomerate.
It already operates one of the world's first cellulosic ethanol plants. The facility in Jennings, La., takes refuse from sugarcane production as its feedstock. It has also licensed its technology to Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. ( MARUY) for use in a cellulosic plant in Osaka that will base its refinery on wood-construction waste.
According to Riva, Verenium is building a 1.4 million gallon-a-year pilot plant that will be finished this year. Eventually the company wants to set up plants that can produce 25 million gallons a year around the country, with the help of some government guaranteed loans and equity investments from major agricultural companies that would supply the feedstock.
"Our plan is to build a fleet of these plants. I think there's enormous value to be extracted managing them as a fleet," Riva says.
Verenium isn't the only biotech player interested in building bio-refineries.
Two competitors are Ottawa-based Iogen Technologies LLC, which is backed by Shell and Goldman Sachs (GS) , and Cambridge-based Mascoma Corp., both of which are privately-held. Like Verenium, both companies focus on creating enzymes to break down biomass.
Iogen recently won a government award to build an 18 million gallons-a-year bio-refinery in Idaho that will squeeze ethanol out of straw from wheat, barley and rice.
Mascoma, meanwhile, has secured funding from a New York state program to build a test plant near Rochester that would produce ethanol from forestry products such as wood chips. The company recently appointed Bruce Jamerson, former head of VeraSun Energy Corp., as its new CEO.
In addition to federal and state funding, Mascoma says it has partnerships with Genencor, Tamarack Energy Inc. and EU ethanol producer Royal Nedalco. Royal Nedalco is a subsidiary of Dutch sugar producer Royal Cosun.
"What you're increasingly seeing is partners coming together to develop a whole value chain," said Matt Carr, an industrial technology policy expert for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
"It's an evolving game" said DuPont's Pierce. "All business models are still open."
'All about costs'
A crucial hurdle remains bringing down the costs of the cellulose-munching enzymes, which are generally produced by bioengineered organisms. Ethanol makers generally use "cocktails" made up of more than a dozen enzymes to do the chomping.
Carr notes that enzymes to produce corn-based ethanol now run about 5 cents a gallon, while cellulosic enzymes cost about 20 cents a gallon. However, as the production techniques and efficiency of cellulosic enzymes advance, that cost should continue to fall.
Codexis' Shaw says his company has been working to create "super-enzymes" that would slash costs by dramatically reducing the number of different enzymes needed.
"It's all about costs," says Codexis' Shaw. "Oil companies are only going to be interested when the cost gets below the cost of oil."
Another obstacle is the cost of building first-generation cellulosic ethanol bio-refineries.
As a part of its initiative to make the nation more self-reliant fuel-wise, the federal government has become a keen supporter of fostering cellulosic ethanol production, actively funding several research initiatives.
Last February, Energy Department said it would fund $385 million for the construction of six cellulosic ethanol plants around the nation, with the industry putting up over $800 million. Award recipients included Iogen and Abengoa Bioenergy.
"It's designed to demonstrate the commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol," said BIO President Jim Greenwood, a former congressman, said of the government program. "Eventually you want to get the industry to a point where it can compete head-to-head with gasoline."
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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BP's biotech bet
By Matthew Herper, Forbes.com
The energy giant has become the biggest investor in some of the most out-there genetics research.
Oil companies are better known for burning fossil fuels than splicing genes. But BP, the energy giant formerly known as British Petroleum, has made leading-edge technologies like custom engineered bacteria a linchpin of its strategy to face up to global warming.
In the process, germs would be souped up to make ethanol, biobutanol or other fuels from plants like corn. Scientists would embed the genomes of bacteria with genes taken from termites, sheep guts or microbes that live on your lawn. The very plants they consumed would also be bioengineered, and even more re-engineered bacteria might produce gasoline or similar fuels directly.
Still more newly discovered microbes that live in oil or natural gas wells might increase the efficiency of existing drilling and mining. Our economy is based on fossil fuels, the remains of long dead organisms. But in the future we might rely on life forms that have never before existed. BP (nyse: BP - news - people ) declined to comment directly on its biotech strategy.
"BP is not doing this because they want to fund basic research," says Aristides Patrinos, the former director of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research and now president of biotech startup Synthetic Genomics. "This revolution in biology is ushering in new tools that, by revisiting old tricks, can make energy production a lot more effective."
The most prominent bet being made by BP is a plan to spend $500 million over 10 years to fund the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a proposed laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. The neighboring Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign are also involved in the project. The project will look at bioscience approaches from agriculture to economics, and will also study the ethical implications of all this new biotech work.
But already, before the institute is built or the contract even signed, the EBI is drawing controversy on the Berkeley campus.
One worry is that the new science of synthetic biology, the souped-up form of genetic engineering that involves radically modifying organisms or even someday designing them from scratch, is both more promising and more dangerous that the technology that has been around for two decades and gave birth to Amgen, Genencor, and Monsanto. Another concern is that BP will get significant intellectual property rights to the work being done at Berkeley, including the right of first refusal to a flood of IP that could result.
But perhaps the biggest red flag is the potential for conflict of interest, as a small number of researchers look to start up what could be a big new research field for academics and industry alike.
Chris Somerville, the Stanford plant geneticist who has been tapped to run the big project, is himself the co-founder of two biotech firms that will work in the same field as the institute. In one, the plant biotech startup Mendel Biotechnology, he has a significant interest, he says; he has less interest in the second, a biofuel startup called LS9.
Somerville has given up any control in either and is in compliance with Berkeley's conflict of interest policies. But he says he cannot afford to give up his stakes in the companies; they would be difficult to trade at a fair value because the firms are not public.
But the connections don't end there. Mendel also has a deal with BP, as does another biofuels play, Amyris Biotechnologies, which was founded by Jay Keasling, a Berkeley synthetic biology whiz who initially sought to make cheaper malaria medicines. (That effort got him a $43 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.) But now Amyris is in the biofuels biz. John G. Melo, the former head of BP's biofuels unit, is its chief executive.
Synthetic biology is such a small field right now that Keasling and Somerville were both initially involved with LS9, but left, leaving Harvard researcher George Church as the main scientific founder. Now Church says that LS9 is making significant progress, engineering E. coli to produce hydrocarbons. The idea is that bacteria could somehow efficiently make fuels that resemble gasoline, but with fewer environmental costs.
"These things don't get immediately disentangled," says Church, who worked in the medical biotech business as a researcher in the early days of Biogen, now part of Biogen Idec, before coming to Harvard. "In any meteorically rising field, the number of people is going to be small, and they're competing against each other at a commercial and academic level."
Another company that has a deal with BP is Synthetic Genomics, which was founded by human genome pioneer J. Craig Venter. The firm recently made headlines by showing that the genome of one bacteria species could be transplanted into a similar one--a step toward making a germ with entirely man-made genes.
But the company's tie-up with BP focuses on another area: using the sequencing technologies that Venter has pioneered to examine the microbes that are found inside natural gas and oil wells. Jonathan Eisen, a researcher at UC-Davis who is not working on the project, says that although that might not produce new kinds of fuels, these undiscovered species could make the discovery of existing fuels more efficient.
Venter says the goal is to discover the "thousands and thousands" of different organisms found in fossil fuel sites, from coal beds to oil wells.
These environments are super-hot, and exactly what kinds of microbes live in them is basically unknown. Patrinos helped launch efforts to learn how to collect living things from such otherworldly environments while he was at the DOE.
Just because BP is being so public about its research by investing in biotech firms and academics doesn't mean its rivals aren't quietly making their own investments. Chevron, for instance, formed a biofuels business unit last May. One disadvantage to BP's approach is that university researchers won't keep their work secret, as in-house scientists might.
In the past, biotech has never succeeded in areas like mining or manufacturing in the same way it did in medicine. Now, with new technologies that allow scientists to find and alter microbes in ways that were never before possible, a new generation of biologists is looking to change that.
And BP is funding them.
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FDA inks deal with Europeans over food safety
By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it signed a pact with European regulators to share more information about the safety of the food supply.
The FDA said the agreement with the European Food Safety Authority would pave the way for formally sharing confidential scientific information and that it would help protect confidential information under both regions' laws.
Last week, the FDA increased scrutiny of imports of Chinese farm-raised seafood after substances illegal in the United States were discovered in some food.
Europeans and Americans have clashed over issues concerning cloned and genetically modified food, and critics have said the FDA's procedures to inspect foods are too weak to be effective.
© Reuters 2007
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Moscow backs Greenpeace plan to identify GM foods
By James Kilner
MOSCOW - Moscow next week introduces a city-wide label to identify GM-free foods, a move ecologists hail as ground-breaking but which foreign producers say is complex and costly.
A handful of individual food producers around the world already use labels certifying their food is free of genetically modified elements - but this is the first large-scale political effort to introduce such a system, Greenpeace says, expecting it to be watched by others as a test-case.
“These labels are important for consumers so they know which companies keep a tight control on ingredients in their products,” Greenpeace’s GM researcher in Russia, Natalia Olefirenko, said.
After an official - voluntary - inspection producers will have the right to carry Moscow’s GM-free label for a year.
The European Union already insists products which contain more than 0.9 percent of GM-enhanced ingredients must say so on the packet, but environmentalists argue that does not go far enough.
“It’s very important for the rest of the world to watch Moscow,” Olefirenko said.
Greenpeace estimates around 80 percent of Russian produce contains no genetically enhanced ingredients, in line with other developing countries, against only about 20 percent in the EU and richer countries.
But Greenpeace said parts of the EU could follow Moscow’s lead if it is a success, although the label should remain voluntary.
Foreign food producers say that is just one of the problems the label brings.
Supermarkets eager to curry favor with Moscow’s government have hinted they will only stock products carrying the GM-free label - and signals from the authorities suggest the label will effectively be obligatory, producer lobby groups say.
“And it’s all extra costs,” said Alexei Popovichev, head of Rusbrand which represents big Western producers such as Nestle and Kraft. “It involves special testing, special packaging and the costs will be passed on to the consumer.”
Small domestic producers will probably feel the burden of the extra costs hardest as they will not be able to spread them through economies of scale, he said.
Western businesses also argue the GM-free label could mislead customers into buying poorer products because the assertion that foods contain no GM-ingredients could be misread as a signal that all the ingredients are of high-quality.
Greenpeace does warn there is a potential flaw in the Moscow GM label, saying the testing system chosen by Moscow is untried even though it says over $2 million has already been spent buying equipment for laboratories owned by a Moscow businessman.
© Copyright The St. Petersburg Times
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Nanotechnology: consumers must be convinced benefits outweigh risks
Washington - “There is no doubt that nanotechnology has the potential to make the world a better place,” said Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies Chief Scientist Andrew Maynard. “But if consumers and other stakeholders are not convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks, many applications will not see the light of day. Likewise, if the benefits are unclear and the risks uncertain, the products of nanotechnology will be a hard sell.”
Dr. Maynard’s remark is in his presentation today before a public meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). He spoke as part of a panel devoted to addressing and managing the potential health, environmental and safety risks of nanotechnology.
“Nanotechnology is turning our world upside down... It also is shaking up our understanding of what makes something harmful and how we deal with that,” according to Maynard. He described the current U.S. policy toward managing the possible health and safety risks of nanotechnologies as “approaching 21st century technologies with a 20th century mindset.”
Maynard called on the federal government to develop a goal-driven risk research strategy to provide decision-makers - including regulators, industry and consumers - with the scientific information they need to help develop and use nanotechnologies as safely as possible. He suggested an international approach to this challenge based on a set of strategic research questions developed by thirteen top scientists last year which were published in the journal Nature.
The paper, “Safe handling of nanotechnology” (Maynard et al., Nature, vol. 44, 16 November 2006), was praised as a “landmark in the history of nanotechnology research” by the then chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and ranking member Bart Gordon (D-TN) of the U.S. Congress’s House Science Committee. In a statement about the paper’s findings, the Congressmen said they both had made it clear that they felt “the Administration was moving too slowly in preparing and funding a research agenda in this area [of nanotechnology risk research] when a sense of urgency was needed.” Two co-authors of the paper, University of Rochester’s Gunter Oberdorster, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) Sally Tinkle, also made presentations at the PCAST meeting.
In his remarks, Maynard proposed a significant increase in research funding for agencies responsible for oversight and related research - the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). He called for creation of a better decision-making and coordination mechanism among government agencies to implement a strategic federal risk research plan for nanotechnology and to lead government-industry research partnerships in this area. He noted that government-industry models like the Health Effects Institute, developed to address automobile pollution, could be leveraged for nanotechnology risk research.
Maynard also suggested that America’s competitive edge and continued world leadership in nanotechnology require a sound and innovative risk management plan. He gave examples of other countries who are taking an integrated approach to nanotechnology implications and commercial applications research.
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Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics Inc. Announces $20 M Stem Cell License to Stem Cell Authority Ltd. for US Market
TORONTO - Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics Inc. (TRT) announced today the exclusive US license of its HUCPVC (human umbilical cord perivascular cell) technology to Stem Cell Authority Ltd. (SCAL) for family stem cell banking. Under the terms of the agreement, SCAL gains US patent rights and manufacturing know-how in return for an upfront technology access fee and annual minimum royalties that will exceed CAD $20 M over the next four years. SCAL is currently offering HUCPVC collection and storage services to physicians for their patients across the US.
"Stem Cell Authority Ltd. is an ideal partner for TRT for the collection of this new type of stem cell from human umbilical cords," said Dr. Jeffrey Turner CEO, TRT, "our partnership with SCAL provides parents in the United States access to this important stem cell technology."
HUCPVCs are an abundant source of therapeutic mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells that are recovered from umbilical cord tissue following birth. Unlike cord blood stem cells, mesenchymal cells are the building blocks for the muscle, bone and connective tissues of the body. HUCPVCs also serve as regulators of the immune system. Published uses of mesenchymal cells in cell therapy include autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (Crohn's, juvenile diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis), cancer, heart disease and tissue engineering.
"Stem Cell Authority Ltd. is excited to offer this exclusive multipotent stem cell technology to American physicians for their patients," said Bernard Cardwell, Chairman and CEO of Stem Cell Authority Ltd. "This puts us in a unique position to provide the collection and banking of both the tissue and blood stem cells from the same umbilical cord."
TRT is a private, Canadian life sciences company that exclusively licensed HUCPVC technology from the University of Toronto. TRT's business model is to license HUCPVC technology to national Cord Blood Banks seeking to offer new families a mesenchymal stem cell product in addition to their existing cord blood storage. In June 2006, TRT exclusively licensed rights for the Canadian market to CReATe Cord Blood Bank in Toronto, who market HUCPVCs as Peristem(TM). TRT's preclinical and clincial development program is designed to define patient benefits for auto-immune and inflammatory diseases.
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DuPont to invest $42 million in Pioneer seed research
DES MOINES - Plant genetics research company Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. and its parent company, DuPont, plan to spend $41.7 million to expand seed genetics research in Iowa.
Most of the money, about $34 million, will be spent at Pioneer's headquarters in Johnston, a Des Moines suburb, where 52 jobs will be added and a $21 million, 60,000-square-foot research laboratory will be built, Pioneer spokesman Pat Arthur said Thursday.
Pioneer also will expand research facilities in Dallas Center, Urbandale and Marion and renovate a DuPont automotive coatings plant in Fort Madison.
A $100 million plan to boost its research capabilities in plant genetics and biotechnology was announced earlier but details for Iowa were released by the companies and the Iowa Department of Economic Development on Wednesday when state incentives were approved.
The company will receive state tax breaks under a jobs creation program and $400,000 from a separate state economic development fund, an IDED statement said.
Under the incentive package, Pioneer pledges to hire an additional 165 workers including 85 researchers in Iowa.
DuPont wants to expand its market position in ethanol and other biofuels as well as emerging technology in cellulosics and other biomaterials, the company said.
The $100 million plan includes the addition of more than 400 positions globally, mainly in research and development at Pioneer, and expanding research and development efforts at 67 of the 92 Pioneer research centers worldwide.
On Tuesday, DuPont announced the opening of its newest seed research center in Porto Nacional, Brazil.
The research center will focus on winter nursery capabilities for corn and soybean breeding, drought tolerance and heat stress research, as well as local product development efforts, the company said in a statement.
Copyright Sioux City Journal
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Buffalo BioSciences Announces New Economic Development Training Service; Pins Key Expert to Lead Offering
BUFFALO, NY - Buffalo BioSciences, LLC, announced the launching of its new training services program for economic development organizations targeting technology sector growth, called "CATALYST SERVICES." The program is designed to enhance organizational effectiveness in reengineering economies toward more technology-driven growth, particularly in the bioscience area. The company will begin offering the service immediately in New York State and the Northeast; a national & international rollout will shortly follow.
To lead the Catalyst Services program, Buffalo BioSciences today also announced the strategic recruitment of Ellen Hassett, a proven business development expert who has delivered similar training with great results to a long list of entities, including the State of Maryland. Ms. Hassett's acumen is founded in over 20 years of experience providing management consulting services to governments and corporate clients in numerous technology-sector arenas, operating as principal of her firm e-sagacity. Ms. Hassett brings a wealth of knowledge and contacts that clients will be able to draw upon for guidance and more importantly implementation, a key component of all Buffalo BioSciences services.
In conjunction with the announcement, Anthony Johnson, Partner of Buffalo BioSciences, stated, "We are very excited to add this new capability to our services offerings. We repeatedly are asked for this type of functional programming from our global government constituents. This service is indeed a necessity, as all municipalities are looking to the science-driven economy to propel their communities into the future, and deliver measurable & competitive expansion."
Ellen Hassett, stated, "The strategic association with Buffalo BioSciences clearly lends substantial value to the already-strong offerings of each of our individual firms. Working in tandem, with a common methodology, in support of our clients' success, our economic development offering will be unmatched in the biosciences and other high-yield technology arenas, enabling those who participate with an operational edge. The result of any "CATALYST SERVICES" engagement will be a customized actionable strategic plan with finely trained operational staff to implement the plan ongoing."
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Biotech Remained Flat in May 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - The summer blues seem to have started early for biotech. Despite a record setting attendance of over 22,000 at the Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in Boston, a nearly 15% increase from the previous year, the event failed to boost the industry on Wall Street. Overall it was a generally a lackluster month for biotech in the capital markets. The Burrill Biotech Select Index closed up 1.7% in contrast to the general markets, which continued their bullish run. The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 4.3% reaching a new high of 13,633 before closing May, down 6 points from this high, and the NASDAQ closed the month up 3.1%. The positive markets were driven by investors growing more confident that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates in the second half of 2007.
"Biotech's positive run came up short in May after posting positive
numbers for the previous four months," said G. Steven Burrill CEO, Burrill &
Company, a San Francisco based global leader in life sciences whose principal
activities are in Venture Capital, Merchant Banking and Media. "Investors may
have been spooked by all the negative publicity surrounding safety concerns
over GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, disappointing clinical results
from several companies and an advisory committee of the FDA recommending that
Amgen Inc. should be required to further strengthen the warning labels of its
anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen and conduct additional studies to prove their
safety. The news played havoc with the company's shares, which ended down 12%
for the month.
"The markets for some biotechs, were holding back on the eve of the
premiere oncology conference, ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology), in
Chicago. As always, the conference brings together the world thought leaders
in oncology and the latest results from the most promising therapeutic
compounds. For cancer, the development of targeted therapies will also be
front and center at the meeting," noted Burrill, "the 5000 presentations
spread out over five days, could very well set the tone for the fortunes of
the industry for the second half of the year."
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Stem cell companies receive a boost
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Stem cell technology proved therapeutic on two fronts in May. First,
California's Supreme Court rejected appeals by opponents of Proposition 71,
the first Stem Cell research program financed by any state, removing the final
obstacle to freeing up to $3 billion in bond sales approved by state voters in
2004. The second came with news from Geron Corporation that its scientists, in
collaboration with scientists at the University of Alberta, have
differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into islet-like clusters
(ILCs) that secrete insulin in response to elevated glucose levels, thus
demonstrating the feasibility of producing therapeutic cell types from hESCs
for the treatment of diabetes. The news boosted Geron's stock 15% in one day,
and its shares closed up 26% for the month.
"For many who believe that stem cells will have a huge impact on the
future of medicine the Supreme Court's decision is a huge relief," commented
Burrill, "the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is now free to
sell bonds to get on with its work."
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Consolidation continues ...
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As Washington worked on trade legislation easing the rules on generics,
Mylan Labs agreed to pay $6.6 billion to acquire the generics unit of Merck
KGaA, creating a global powerhouse with combined revenue of $4.2 billion in
2006. Among biotechs, Hologic Inc. will pay $6.2 billion for Cytyc
Corporation, combining two major players in women's health care. Both
companies specialize in screening tools and medical devices for women's health
and the combined companies will create a strong sales force in the US. At the
end of May, Genzyme announced its intention to buy BioEnvision for $345
million in cash, to enhance its oncology business. This deal might have
difficulty going through because the offer is considered as undervalued by a
major shareholder. Genzyme said the move helps enhance its oncology offerings
because it will receive exclusive, worldwide rights to clofarabine, a drug
Bioenvision and Genzyme co-developed in Europe. All in all a busy month on the
M&A front.
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IPOs still getting done
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It was a relatively good month for biotech IPOs with four companies
getting their IPOs done in May:
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-- Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to treat age-related
diseases including metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, went
public at $10 per share, the midpoint range, raising $69 million. After
their debut, the company's shares shot up and by the end of the month
had gained 29%.
-- Biodel, which is developing new treatments for diabetes and
osteoporosis, went public at the midpoint of their proposed pricing
range at $18 per share, raising $82.5 million, At months end the
company's share value had risen 20%.
-- Helicos BioSciences, a genomics company, reduced its IPO price to $9
per share, raising $48 million. The company's shares were down 6% at
the end of the month.
-- NeurogesX, which is developing novel pain management therapies, priced
its share offering at $11 per share, below their original planned price
of $13 to $15 per share. By months end the company's shares were down
20%, trading at $8.10.
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CMI Secures $4M Financing
EDMONTON - CardioMetabolics Inc., a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has secured over $4 million in private equity in its latest financing to advance work on drug candidates being developed for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and related metabolic conditions, such as diabetes. The initial target for the company's lead candidate is to improve outcomes and recovery times for patients undergoing open heart surgical procedures (ex. Coronary artery bypass). The global opportunity for this drug is estimated at greater than $2 billion.
The financing was led by Canaccord Capital Corporation. As part of the
financing, 13,738,964 Common Shares were issued at a price of $0.30 per Common
Share for total gross proceeds of $4,121,689. This represented the base
offering size of 10,000,000 Shares and the full exercise of the over-allotment
option to purchase an additional 3,738,964 Shares. The Company intends to use
the net proceeds of the Offering for clinical trial expenses, working capital
and general corporate purposes.
"We were delighted with how quickly the financing was completed," said
Kimmo Lucas, President and CEO of CardioMetabolics. "Thanks to high interest
from the investment community, the round was over-subscribed. This speaks to
the confidence that the investment community has in our company and plan for
commercializing our promising drug candidates."
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McGuinty And Schwarzenegger Team Up To Curb Climate Change, Boost Stem Cell Research
Ontario And California Sign Historic Accord On Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, Collaborate On Cancer Research
TORONTO - Premier Dalton McGuinty announced today that the governments of Ontario and California are joining forces to fight cancer and climate change.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Premier McGuinty at the
Ontario legislature, where they signed a Memorandum of Understanding on
climate change.
"Both Ontario and California have been taking action on climate change by
introducing progressive policies and encouraging innovation," said Premier
McGuinty. "Today, Canada's most populous province and America's most populous
state have joined together to tackle one of our greatest challenges - as
business partners, as places that share a legacy of innovation and progressive
thinking, and as friends."
"Like California, Ontario is leading the way in recognizing that we must
take action now to fight global warming and reduce our dependence on fossil
fuels," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "States, provinces, regions and
countries must all work together to find solutions that both protect our
environment and grow our economy at the same time. We need to engage all
sectors of our economy, including international trade - and encourage the
best, brightest and most creative minds to work together to tackle global
climate change."
Under the historic accord, Ontario and California are partnering to fight
global warming by coordinating policies on fuel standards. Ontario will
require producers to reduce carbon emissions from transportation fuels by
10 per cent by 2020 - the equivalent of removing 700,000 cars from the roads.
This approach allows the market, rather than the government, to determine
how to reduce emissions at the lowest cost and in the most consumer-friendly
way.
Other highlights of the cross-border accord include:
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- Collaborating on energy efficiency programs
- Coordinating efforts to switch to clean energy technologies, promote
green buildings and increase efficiency
- Working together on national, North American and international
emissions trading
- Exploring market-based mechanisms such as expanding the Western
Regional Climate Action Initiative to encourage an effective carbon
market.
>>
Premier McGuinty and Governor Schwarzenegger also met at the MaRS
Discovery District in Toronto, where they agreed to back promising new stem
cell research that will help uncover new therapies for cancer.
The McGuinty government is investing $30 million to support the new
Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, which will be headquartered at the MaRS centre.
Working with colleagues in California, scientists in Ontario will investigate
new therapies for cancer based on stem cell research. The Ontario Institute
for Cancer Research will oversee the collaboration efforts.
"These initiatives unite some of the best scientists in the world and it
shows what we can do when we work together to solve big problems," said
Governor Schwarzenegger. "I also want to offer my deepest gratitude to the
scientists and doctors in California and Canada who are using our resources to
find new therapies and cures. These innovators are adding new rays of hope for
the millions of people around the world who suffer from diseases like
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and multiple sclerosis."
"California and Ontario researchers pioneered the discovery of cancer
stem cells," said Premier McGuinty. "Through continued collaboration, we're
going to keep working, dreaming and building together to fight this terrible
disease and renew hope for a lasting cure."
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GangaGen, University of Nottingham sign research agreement
Project to develop phage treatment for campylobacter in poultry
OTTAWA, Canada and Nottingham, UK – May 22, 2007 – GangaGen Life Sciences Inc. and the University of Nottingham today announced they are engaging in a major research project to develop a bacteriophage-based treatment for the control of Campylobacter bacteria in poultry. Along with Salmonella, Campylobacter is the most common form of food-borne illness, infecting millions of people worldwide every year.
Both GangaGen and the university are leaders in bacteriophage research and view the technology as a vital breakthrough in the control of bacterial contamination and associated health risks. Phages are naturally occurring agents that target and destroy bacteria with a high degree of efficiency, and do so selectively and specifically, without affecting beneficial bacteria or body cells.
The research agreement is focused on building a business relationship to commercialize phage technology developed at the University that complements the existing phage expertise of GangaGen.
GangaGen is a developer of therapeutics based on phage technology for the control of disease-causing bacteria. The company is developing a portfolio of products for the effective treatment of infectious disease in human and animal health. Its animal health program includes innovations for the control of food-safety hazards associated with the transfer of pathogenic bacteria from animal production to consumers. The work on a phage product for the control of Campylobacter will complement the GangaGen’s food safety product portfolio, which also includes phage products against Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7. The technological advances made by the company have already eliminated any potential toxicity and gene-transfer risks.
"We are excited to be working with a company like GangaGen that is at the forefront of phage technology development," said Dr. Ian Connerton, Northern Foods Professor of Food Safety, the University’s research partner in the agreement. "Our team’s research has demonstrated that certain phages specific for Campylobacter can significantly reduce the load of the bacteria carried by poultry. By implication, this should also reduce the risk to consumers by decreasing bacterial contamination of meat that is prevalent in poultry processing and is transferred to chicken meat on grocery shelves."
Food-safety authorities in Europe and in North America recently released data showing that the contamination hazard due to Campylobacter remains high, and is of increasing concern because the pathogen has also started to demonstrate resistance to several common antibiotics. The IAFP International Association for Food Protection highlighted this concern at its 2006 annual conference in Calgary.
"GangaGen believes that the place to start fighting food safety-related bacteria is at the farm where livestock production takes place, and this research agreement with the University of Nottingham allows us to continue building on that premise," said Dr. Rainer Engelhardt, CEO of GangaGen Life Sciences Inc. "The food industry and its regulators have stated that they believe that timely intervention is needed at the farm level to supplement the extensive, but not fully effective, controls already in place in food processing. GangaGen has demonstrated in production animal trials that we can isolate and use phages efficaciously, with full regard for safety, and that the phages are benign to animals, humans and the environment."
"This research agreement is of great importance to the health market in general," continued Engelhardt. "The combination of these two research teams provides strong impetus for creating a safe, effective and low cost solution to this pernicious consumer health risk."
About GangaGen
GangaGen is a private biotechnology company and a world leader in phage technology and commercialization of phage innovation for control and treatment of infectious bacterial disease. GangaGen Life Sciences Inc. was established in 2002 in Ottawa, Canada, by its U.S. parent, GangaGen Inc., to develop, jointly with its sister company in India, GangaGen Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., phage-based anti-infective technologies for applications in human and animal health, including zoonotic disease (that is, pathogens carried by animals and transferable to humans). For more information, visit www.gangagen.ca.
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