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PREMIER Biosoft International joins Microsoft in the BioIT Alliance.
PREMIER Biosoft International announced its acceptance into the BioIT Alliance enabling the company to leverage its expertise in providing powerful solutions to accelerate life science and biomedical research.
Palo Alto, California - PREMIER Biosoft International, a leading bioinformatics company and life sciences solution provider, on November 30, 2007 announced its joining the BioIT Alliance. The BioIT Alliance consists of a cross-industry group of global IT companies, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, hardware and software companies working together to address the needs of the growing life sciences industry.
"We are proud that our expertise in life science software solutions has been recognized and look forward to harnessing the expertise of Alliance in providing even better bioinformatics solutions to our customers.", said Kay Brown, Vice President, PREMIER Biosoft International.
"We are delighted to have PREMIER Biosoft as our member. The BioIT Alliance will benefit from the core competencies and expertise that PREMIER Biosoft has gained from its research and development of bioinformatics tools and contract software development for life science research.", commented Rudy Potenzone, Industry Technology Strategist for Microsoft and Director of the BioIT Alliance.
About the BioIT Alliance:
Formed in 2006, the BioIT Alliance is a cross-industry group working to integrate science and technology in order to accelerate the pace of drug discovery and realize the potential of personalized medicine. Founding members include Accelrys Software Inc., Affymetrix, Inc., Agilent Technologies Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Applied Biosystems, The BioTeam Inc., Digipede Technologies LLC, Discovery Biosciences Corporation, Geospiza Inc., Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Illumina Inc., InterKnowlogy, Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems Inc., The Scripps Research Institute, VizX Labs LLC and other key companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech, hardware and software industries. Additional information about the BioIT Alliance can be found on the BioIT Alliance Web site at http://www.bioitalliance.org
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Biotech Survives Market Turbulence in November
SAN FRANCISCO - Wall Street closed out a volatile month and although the Dow ended the final week of November with gains, it still posted a 4% decline for November. This was even in wake of its biggest percentage gain in four and a half years during the month. "Investors remained extremely nervous about inflation, oil prices and the weakness in the economy," 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. "Although not totally immune from the market turmoil, biotech held its own and the Burrill Biotech Select Index was only down marginally, in stark contrast to the NASDAQ, which took a 6% hit in November.
"Biotech had a great deal of news to keep investors interested during the
month... particularly on the M&A front with companies having their own version
of the traditional consumer 'Black Friday' spree," noted Burrill.
Celgene Corp. vaulted itself into biotech's top five by market cap with
its acquisition of Pharmion Corp. for $2.9 billion in cash and stock. The move
is part of its drive to become a major global player in developing and
marketing blood-cancer drugs.
"The deal reflects the intense competition among drug makers for
acquisitions to improve their pipelines," explained Burrill. "M&A has become a
staple in biotech land. There is pressure on the management of pharmaceutical
and biotech companies to perform and increase shareholder value and M&A has
become the tool of choice to do this. Not only are we seeing biotechs
acquiring biotechs but the pending expiry of patents on a number of
blockbuster pharmaceuticals has stoked demand by big pharma for small
innovative biotechs that can be easily acquired and integrated.
Sanofi-Aventis, for example, says that it plans to aggressively pursue biotech
buyouts. As more big developers fill their pipelines with biologics,
competition for the most promising biotech drugs will be intense.
"Among the glut of transactions during November was Glaxo's acquisition
of privately-held Reliant Pharmaceuticals for $1.65 billion and Pfizer's
acquisition of Coley Pharmaceuticals for $164 million. Reliant was planning
$400 million initial public offering and its decision to be acquired provided
a major premium for the company's investors.
"The environment for M&A is bullish right now... so much so that
biotech's are planting 'for sale' signs on their lots," Burrill explained.
"Following Biogen Idec, which put itself up for sale last month,
Vancouver-based QLT said it was seeking potential buyers for some or all of
its assets and MGI Pharma announced that it was looking at its options
including a buyer."
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Biotech IPOs
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The uncertain capital markets weighed on biotech companies hoping to move
off the IPO runway. In November only ARYx Therapeutics, which re-engineers
commercially successful drugs to eliminate safety issues, priced a 5 million
share offering at $10 -- significantly lower than its original $14 to $16
range.
Two other companies added themselves to the runway: Aegerion
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. that is focused on development of small-molecule
therapeutics to treat cardiovascular and metabolic disease; and ChemoCentryx,
which is developing therapeutics targeting chemokine receptors to prevent
autoimmune disorders and certain cancers.
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Biotech Indices
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"With one month to go the Burrill Biotech Select Index is up 16.6% year-
to-date, well ahead of the Dow and Nasdaq. This is an excellent return
considering the ongoing uncertainties in the general markets," said Burrill.
Major movers in the Biotech Select Index in November were Neurocrine
Biosciences (up 41%) and Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (up 25%). At one
point shares of Millennium hit a new annual high amid a sharp rise in revenues
for their cancer drug Velcade and upcoming Phase III trial data in multiple
myeloma. Millennium's share value did take a slight hit after reporting that
it was dropping development of its MLN3897 for rheumatoid arthritis after it
was shown not to be effective in Phase II clinical trial.
Also stubbing their toes were Amgen Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Amgen reported that interim results of a Phase III study of anemia drug
Aranesp as a breast cancer treatment failed to show a significant difference
between patients using the drug and those in control groups. The news came too
late to effect the company's share price, which fell to $53 in after-hours
trading, having closed the month at $55.25, down 5% (-19% year-to-date).
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc's shares closed the month down 21% after
safety concerns prompted its partner Merck & Co. to suspend enrollment in
their Phase II clinical trial for testing the leukemia treatment MK-0457. One
patient was observed with a QTc prolongation, a heart condition that results
in irregular heartbeat and could result in a heart attack.
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Competition Bureau Clears Schering-Plough's Acquisition of Organon BioSciences
OTTAWA - The Competition Bureau announced today that it will not challenge Schering-Plough Corporation's acquisition of Organon BioSciences N.V from Akzo Nobel N.V.
"After an extensive review of this transaction, the Bureau concluded that the acquisition is unlikely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition in the animal and human health markets," said Melanie Aitken, Senior Deputy Commissioner of Competition.
Schering-Plough and Organon BioSciences are active in research and development within the human and animal health industry and produce a variety of products in these sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Schering-Plough also produces a number of brand-name products including Coppertone and Dr. Scholl's.
The Bureau examined the effects of the transaction on the human health market, but its analysis concentrated primarily on the animal health sector, where there is greater competitive overlap between the companies. Specifically, the Bureau focussed on the following markets: companion animals (dogs, cats, horses), cattle, swine and poultry.
Overall, while the Bureau found potential competition concerns in some areas, the existence of effective remaining competition resolved the majority of these concerns, except with respect to the fowl cholera vaccine for poultry.
Over the course of its review, the Bureau cooperated with other jurisdictions, including the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the European Commission's Competition Directorate. To satisfy its competition concerns, the FTC ordered the divestiture of three vaccines, one of which also raised competition issues in Canada - Organon BioSciences' fowl cholera vaccine. This remedy resolves any outstanding concerns identified by the Bureau.
The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency. We contribute to the prosperity of Canadians by protecting and promoting competitive markets and enabling informed consumer choice.
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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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