Bio-IT World News Briefs: May
By Bio-IT World Staff
June 1, 2012 | News briefs and bits from the biotech industry in May.
French Biotech Struggles
The French life-science sector reported disappointing numbers for 2011. The number of new firms created in 2011 plunged 47%, from 46 in 2010 to 24 last year, and the number of closures soared by 400%, from 5 in 2008 to 25 in 2011. And the funding picture is no brighter for the survivors, according to the 150-strong association France Biotech. Its 2011 Life Sciences Panorama showed that biotechnology and medical device firms raised only $348 million from venture capitalists, new stock market listings and refinancings, down 40% from 2010. Nature News
DNA Cell Line Authentication
DDC (DNA Diagnostics Center) is partnering with the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department at Harvard University to authenticate cell lines used in its research projects. Tissue cell cultures used in a variety of biomedical research areas are often misidentified. This misidentification leads to inappropriate conclusions, withdrawal of scientific papers, and wasted resources. DDC
Roche Renews Genedata License
Roche has renewed the licensing agreement of Genedata Expressionist for Mass Spectrometry. Genedata Expressionist is a comprehensive, enterprise-level system for omics data management. Roche will use the system to target molecular pathways and validate novel biomarkers in the field of proteomics. Press release
Amgen Names New CEO
Amgen introduced new CEO Bob Bradway to shareholders last week at the company's annual meeting, with retiring CEO Kevin Sharer stepping down after a decade. At the meeting, Amgen stockholders also voted against all four shareholder proposals up for consideration. Those included bids to separate the board chairman and CEO positions, which was supported by 42 percent of shares voted, and to limit the CEO to serving on only one other company's board, which was supported by only 4 percent of shares voted. Press release
Encryption of Personal Health Information
Medical Audit & Review Solutions (MARS) has deployed the CipherCloud Gateway to encrypt protected health information (PHI) as part of a custom cloud-based development project called the MARS PROBE Platform. This data includes information related to specialty medical claims and is utilized by MARS' physician auditors, ensuring compliance and eliminating privacy concerns. The CipherCloud Gateway uses comprehensive security controls including strong encryption, tokenization, activity monitoring, and malware detection to address organizations’ data privacy, residency, security, and compliance concerns. CipherCloud
Biospecimen Management System
Persistent Systems and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) are developing a commercial version of their high-quality biospecimen management system called Bio4D. Initial versions of the Bio4D software, created to manage biological repositories for genetic and genomic research, have been used at TGen in the investigation of the underlying causes of disease. The robust commercial version of Bio4D will manage the collection, processing, storage, distribution and analysis of biospecimens, which includes blood, DNA, and tissue samples, including samples from cancer biopsies. Persistent Systems
INC Broadens Medidata Offerings
INC Research has broadened its services around Medidata Solutions’ clinical cloud platform by attaining three new accreditations. Now offering implementation and management services for Medidata Balance, Medidata Rave Targeted SDV and Medidata Coder, INC Research continues to expand its ability to help research sponsors overcome critical cost, risk and efficiency challenges across the clinical chain. In 2006, INC Research became one of the first CROs to join Medidata’s Partner Program and has since conducted more than 100 study builds for the Medidata Rave electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical data management (CDM) system. INC Research
