The year closed out with two large acquisition deals for genomics companies...Amgen plunked down $415 million to acquire DeCode Genetics, a genomics company that was threatened with bankruptcy liquidation just three years ago

Its success to date stems mainly from its founders, biotech veterans Charles Magness and Shawn Iadonato, who previously co-founded Illumigen Biosciences Inc., a genetics/genomics company bought by Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc

In November 2003 it acquired MetaGen Pharmaceuticals GmbH, accessing the £15 million cash pile of the Berlin-based genomics company and raising £8 million privately at the same time

In November 2003 it acquired MetaGen Pharmaceuticals GmbH, accessing the £15 million cash pile of the Berlin-based genomics company and raising £8 million privately at the same time

She likened the trend to how early genomics companies began as service providers but eventually transitioned to drug development

She likened the trend to how early genomics companies began as service providers but eventually transitioned to drug development

The first paper, by researchers from Icelandic genomics company deCode Genetics, did a genomewide association study of about 14,000 smokers and found two SNPs that correlated with increased nicotine dependence as well as an increased risk of lung cancer and peripheral arterial disease

The chairman, CEO and co-founder of Pharnext is Daniel Cohen, who spent a significant part of his past career with the French genomics company Genset until it was taken over by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Serono in 2002

COMPLETED MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS FIRST QUARTER Company Acquired (Country Symbol) Acquired By Or Merged With (Country Symbol) Date Announced Date Completed Value (M)*** Terms/Details Agowa AG* (Germany) LGC Group (UK) 1/12/06 1/12/06 ND LGC extended its European operations through the acquisition of Agowa, a genomics company in Germany Agribiotics Holdings Inc.* (Canada) Nitragin Holding Inc. (Canadian affiliate of Merck KGaA) 3/28/06 3/28/06 €20 ($24) Nitragin acquired

But outsourcing isn't the real story here, any more than contract services was the full story of combichem or genomics companies

Nanogen Inc., of San Diego, formed a collaboration with Oy Jurilab Ltd., a Kuopio, Finland-based genomics company, to identify and validate new prognostic markers for Type II diabetes

the combined firm assumed the Advanced Ocular Systems name and headquarters Agowa AG* (Germany) LGC Group (UK) 1/12/06 1/12/06 ND LGC extended its European operations through the acquisition of Agowa, a genomics company in Germany Agribiotics Holdings Inc.* (Canada) Nitragin Holding Inc. (Canadian affiliate of Merck KGaA) 3/28/06 3/28/06 €20 ($24) Nitragin acquired Agribiotics, a crop bio- science company Research products division of Ambion Inc.* Applied Biosystems Group 12/27/05 3

LGC Group, of London, acquired Agowa AG, of Berlin, Germany, a genomics company

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December COMPLETED MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS - December 2006 Company Acquired Acquired By Or Merged With Date Announced Date Completed Value (M) Terms/Details Connetics Corp. (CNCT) Stiefel Laboratories Inc. 10/23/06 12/28/06 $670 Stiefel paid $17.50 per share in cash, or $670M, for Connetics; the offer was a 62% premium to the four-week average price Elbion AG (Germany

Other genomics companies, but especially industry investors, were unsure what impact the project's completion would have on the industry as a whole, so it became a cautious market until the post-HGP impact could be analyzed

Those include Motif Biosciences, a population genomics company using genomics data from the Arabian Gulf region to research common disorders

The discovery of NU206 also represented a "significant achievement" for Nuvelo as it is the first product candidate identified through its own internal research efforts, Love said, marking the company's final transition "from a genomics company to a company that actually develops therapeutics using genomics

The reason is we obviously have evolved from a genomics company to having what we think is one of the most promising early stage pipelines," said Charles Butler, the company's associate director of corporate communications

The Oxford-based chemical genomics company joined AIM with a market capitalization of £42.3 million