The therapeutic tax credit, part of the Senate's health care reform bill, will help small biotechs with fewer than 250 employees pay salaries of their scientists, continue their research, and even hire workers to help push out new medicines. Read more @ New Jersey Business News
AB SCIEX has launched as a new company dedicated to life science analytical technologies. The new company combines the two halves of the highly successful AB SCIEX mass spectrometry joint venture into an integrated organization. AB SCIEX, which is the global market leader in mass spectrometry, intends to utilize its new operating structure to increase speed to market in developing innovative new solutions and expanding service and support to enable the scientific community to continue its increasing use of mass spectrometry for a broader range of applications. AB SCIEX provides instrumentation, software and services that are used in a number of critical life science applications, including drug discovery and development, disease studies, and food and environmental safety. Read more.
Finland has committed €1.85m to the development of European biomedical research infrastructures (BMS ESFRIs) by supporting a joint pilot infrastructure project in bioinformatics (ELIXIR), biobanking (BBMRI) and translational research (EATRIS). The approach that Finland has selected is based on the realisation that significant potential synergies may arise from infrastructures developed for biobanking, bioinformatics and translational medical research. Funding of €1m is provided by the Ministry of Education through the Academy of Finland, with €850,000 co-financing from a consortium consisting of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), CSC – IT Center for Science and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Read more.
Infosys Technologies will design and implement the Research Informatics System (RISe) at Elan Pharmaceuticals to accelerate discovery research using a path-breaking co-creation engagement model that leverages Infosys’ existing intellectual property in this field. As Elan’s informatics system, RISe will leverage Infosys’ Scientific Innovation Solution for knowledge collaboration. Novel ways to unlock disparate data spread across in-house research labs and other commercial or public sources will be presented to scientists in context of their research needs. This will result in, among other things, a customized registry, and inventory and a workflow management system for biological entities. Read more.
IBM has signed an agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, maker of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. The acquisition is IBM's 30th to advance capabilities in information and analytics. Financial details were not disclosed. Read more.
GlaxoSmithKline has purchased the rights to an early-stage lung disease drug from Austrian biotech Apeiron Biologics for the equivalent of $330 million--11 million pounds in cash and equity with milestone payments that could total 207 million bounds. Read more @ Reuters
Teva, the Israeli generics company, has run clinical trials on a drug that looks very much like Amgen's Neupogen. Amgen and Teva are currently debating the issue in court (Amgen arguing patent infringement), but the FDA has agreed to consider Teva's application for the generic version. Read more @ Washington Post
RainDance Technologies has appointed Sirshendu Roopom Banerjee as President and Chief Executive Officer. RainDance Technologies provides innovative microdroplet-based solutions that accelerate research and development for human healthcare and industrial markets. Most recently, Banerjee was a Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Leerink Swann, where he led the Life Science Tools and Diagnostics sector. Previously, Banerjee was with McKinsey and Goldman Sachs advising Fortune 500 healthcare companies globally on corporate and growth strategy, product development and launch strategy, international expansion, and mergers and acquisitions. Read more.