PARIS - France is in the process of establishing a silicon suburb for its nascent biotechnology industry in Evry, 35 kilometers south of Paris. Called the Génopole, it is designed to act as a hothouse for biotechnology research and development and is seeking to attract both public sector research establishments and private firms to a site aiming to become an international center of biotechnology excellence. The government initiative dates to 1996, when a genotyping laboratory was established
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 12, 1998
LONDON - Chiroscience Group plc has sold a 30 percent stake in its chiral chemistry arm, ChiroTech Technology Ltd., for £30 million in cash, valuing the subsidiary at about £100 million and almost doubling Chiroscience's cash reserves. The deal with Ascot plc, a U.K. chemical engineering group, includes the formation of a manufacturing alliance with Mitchell Cotts Chemicals Ltd., Ascot's fine chemicals manufacturing subsidiary, which is based in West Yorkshire. Mitchell Cotts is the contract
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 12, 1998
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (EU) is working to upgrade cooperation with China on biotechnology by setting up the European Biotechnology Node for Interactions with China (EBNIC) to promote joint projects between European and Chinese scientists, both in academia and in industry. Biomedicine, agriculture and biodiversity are among the topics initially identified for collaborations. Activities envisaged range from supplying guidance on biosafety regulations and on differences in
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 12, 1998
* Bioglan Pharma plc, a drug-delivery specialist based in Hitchin, U.K., signed a 10-year deal with Novo Nordisk A/S, of Bagsvaerd, Denmark, for application of its biosphere technology. Full terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but as part of the deal Novo will invest US$5 million in Bioglan. Novo plans to use Bioglan's biosphere technology in the development of extended-release formulations of therapeutic proteins that are delivered via injection. * Oxford Biomedica plc, of Oxford, U.K
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
HAMBURG, Germany - RiNA Netzwerk, a newly founded, Berlin-based network of research institutions, clinics and companies, intends to coordinate efforts to develop therapeutic and diagnostic applications of RNA. So far the network has attracted at least one U.S. biotechnology company, which formed a German-based firm. "RNA molecules are not just an important part of the genetic system in cells. They can be used in a variety of biotechnology applications," RNA specialist Volker Erdmann told
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
LONDON - U.K. bioinformatics start-up Synomics Ltd. has raised £4 million in venture capital to develop and market software that will integrate and bring coherence to the huge amounts of data generated by new technologies such as genomics, combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening. Such technologies promise to increase the productivity of discovery and development activities, but pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are finding it hard to maximize investments in the
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
TORONTO - GlycoDesign Inc., which focuses on glycobiological research, has further expanded its potential product portfolio following the signing of a licensing deal with the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute (SLRI) of Mount Sinai Hospital. The agreement is for access to recently issued patents covering a new class of inhibitors of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and will involve research that could lead to new therapies for cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and fibrosis
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
SYDNEY - A research subsidiary of Australia's only listed pharmaceutical company, F.H. Faulding & Co. Ltd., has signed an option agreement for a drug delivery system to be tested by Swiss giant Novartis AG. For an undisclosed amount, the option agreement involves a multipolymer liquid gel made in the form of a cream and rubbed onto the skin. The gel is to be combined with an existing product from Novartis, of Basel, Switzerland. Ross Macdonald, managing director of Faulding's research
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
DUBLIN, Ireland - Very few organizations are currently using genomics effectively. Most are using the technology for rapid isolation of genes that have already been discovered. "All that does is to make your life a little easier. You could have cloned it anyway," said Steven Briggs, who has been appointed president of the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute (NADI), the first component of a US$600 million, 10-year investment program in agricultural genomics announced recently by Novartis
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
LONDON - People who have anything to do with HIV and AIDS know what sort of HIV vaccine they would like. It would eliminate the virus from the body, be given in a single shot and provide lifelong protection. Sadly, recent insights into the ways in which certain viruses evade the immune response suggest that, if a vaccine for HIV is ever going to be possible, it will be of the type currently available against influenza: only partially effective and given in repeated shots. And - the biggest
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
LONDON - The U.K. government has published guidelines that open the way for the first clinical trials of animal to human organ transplants. Following a consultation exercise last year, Minister of Health Frank Dobson reported details of a regulatory framework, including procedures for submitting applications for clinical trials, which signals the go-ahead for development of xenotransplantation in the U.K. Applications are to be scrutinized by the U.K. Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (EU) is tightening rules on marketing authorizations for biotechnology medicines. Three years after establishment of the drug registration system, through which the European Medicines Evaluation Agency in London acts on behalf of all 15 member states for centralized approvals, the European Commission (EC) has decided it needs to clarify the ground rules defining the products that must go through the system. In particular, from now on it will be less
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission (EC) has proposed a framework of incentives for orphan drugs, which are products for diagnosis, prevention or treatment of rare diseases. The initiative - long awaited in Europe - was greeted enthusiastically by European drug and biotechnology industry organizations. "This proposal will benefit all firms engaged in pharmaceutical research and development," the EC said in the introduction to the draft regulation. "It should, however, be noted that
BioWorld International | Wednesday, August 5, 1998
SYDNEY - The share price of Australian flu-cure company Biota Holdings Ltd. jumped nearly 5 percent on news of a breakthrough in a diabetes research project funded by the company. Disclosure that a team of scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) worked out the structure of part of a key diabetes-related cell receptor holds no immediate commercial significance for Biota. But upon hearing the news Friday, investors pushed up the company
PARIS - Transgene SA reported a net loss of FFr36.7 million for the second quarter of 1998, up from FFr21 million in the corresponding quarter of 1997. The Strasbourg, France, company attributed the 75 percent increase in net loss to higher R&D costs associated with the entry of some of its gene therapies into Phase II clinical trials. R&D spending amounted to FFr30.8 million, an 8.2 percent jump from FFr28.4 million in the second quarter of 1997. Transgene spent a further FFr6.5 million on
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (EU) developed another aid program for the biotechnology sector, involving workshops to assist scientists in creating biotechnology companies. The initiative, which gives concrete expression to some of the good intentions recently formulated by the European Commission (EC) at its conference on financing biotechnology, will consist of a series of workshops held across Europe to enable entrepreneurs to prepare "viable business plans." Known as "Biobiz
PARIS - Despite a 44 percent increase in R&D spending - to FFr48.7 million in the second quarter of 1998 from FFr33.9 million in the same three months a year ago - Genset SA trimmed its net quarterly loss to FFr23.2 million from FFr24.9 million. The improvement was more significant relative to the first quarter of 1998, when the Paris-based genomics company posted a net loss of FFr27.8 million. This outcome followed an increase in Genset's revenues, which more than doubled to FFr38 million
LONDON - Alizyme plc has agreed to a deal with SmithKline Beecham plc under which it will develop SmithKline's renzapride compound for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The London-based pharmaceutical company already has carried out Phase I studies of renzapride, a 5-HT4 agonist/5-HT3 antagonist, in the treatment of gastric reflux disorders. IBS is a motility disorder of the small intestine and large bowel. Alizyme said renzapride will combat the disorder by stimulating intestinal
HAMBURG, Germany - Evotec BioSystems GmbH, one of Germany's first biotechnology start-ups, is attracting much attention from investors and big pharmaceutical firms and, following a successful US$25 million private placement, said it plans to go public next year. Evotec, of Hamburg, was founded in 1993 when Karsten Henco and Ulrich Aldag - both cofounders of Qiagen NV, - joined the German Nobelist Manfred Eigen, of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, and Rudolf Rigler, a
LONDON - African swine fever virus produces a protein that mimics the actions of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin A, U.K. researchers have shown. The discovery could explain how the virus manages to evade its host's immune system and could lead to new strategies for developing a vaccine against this economically important disease of pigs. African swine fever was first identified in Kenya early this century, when domestic pigs came into contact with warthogs and bush pigs. In the 1950s
PARIS - France is in the process of establishing a silicon suburb for its nascent biotechnology industry in Evry, 35 kilometers south of Paris. Called the Génopole, it is designed to act as a hothouse for biotechnology research and development and is seeking to attract both public sector research establishments and private firms to a site aiming to become an international center of biotechnology excellence. The government initiative dates to 1996, when a genotyping laboratory was established