BioWorld Perspectives Contributing Writer There was a time when competitors kept their distance from one another for fear of leaking intellectual property secrets. Collaborations among scientists from different companies, institutions, or parts of the world were rare. Then again, the technology to transmit scientific discovery was lacking. Today, shared discoveries and shared research are making an enormous impact on the life sciences. Sometimes, a missing piece of a genetic puzzle or a

BioWorld Today Staff Writer Seeking to grow its pipeline, San Diego-based Santarus agreed to collaborate with Italian specialty drug firm Cosmo Technologies Ltd. to develop and commercialize two compounds targeting the colon in a deal worth up to $87 million plus royalties. The companies will share development costs of the compounds - budesonide and rifamycin - both of which were designed with Cosmo's controlled-release technology. Under the deal, Santarus will pay Cosmo an up-front cash fee

BioWorld today Staff Writer Exelixis signed a major deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., in which the drugmaker would pay a hefty $195 million up front for rights to cancer programs developed by Exelixis. That puts the biotech firm in good financial shape right now, CEO George Scangos said, adding that the company could be "independent of capital for at least three years." The news clearly made Wall Street happy. Shares in Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) rose $1.22 or 32.7 percent, closing at $4.95

BioWorld Today Washington Editor WASHINGTON – President-Elect Barack Obama Thursday officially announced former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as his choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the person to oversee a new White House Office of Health Reform. The 61-year-old former South Dakota Democratic senator, who served in Congress from 1979 to 2005, not only will be in charge of an agency responsible for food and drug safety, medical research and the

BioWorld International Correspondent Shares in Intercell AG rose by more than 8.5 percent Monday on news that the company's lead product, a vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV), received a positive opinion from the Committee on Human Medicinal Products, of the European Medicines Agency. That follows a positive recommendation from the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee the Vienna, Austria-based company received last Friday. Formal approval from the European Commission in Brussels

All My Clones—Episode 19: To Be or Not To Be If you missed previous episodes of the biotech-themed soap opera "All My Clones," click here to read the beginning of the story. As Odessa made her way from the curb to the steps of Lincoln Center Plaza, she wondered if this would be the last Metropolitan Opera gala she would be able to attend. The stock market gyrations had broken through the bottom of the 8000 Dow and full-blown panic was everywhere on Wall Street. Many of her colleagues had lost

BioWorld Today Washington Editor Results of a Phase III study showed that Human Genome Sciences Inc.'s Albuferon (albinterferon alfa-2b) in combination with ribavirin was noninferior to Roche AG's Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) - the standard of care - in treating patients with genotypes 2 and 3 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), with half as many injections. The news drove shares of the firm's stock (NASDAQ:HGSI) up 14 cents Tuesday, or 8.1 percent, to close at $1.86. Albuferon is being

BioWorld Today Washington Editor Shares of Targanta Therapeutics Corp. plummeted 40 percent Tuesday after the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm said it received a complete response letter from the FDA asking for another study of oritavancin, an investigational antibiotic being developed for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSIs). The company's stock (NASDAQ:TARG) closed at $1.34, down 91 cents. While the FDA's decision was no surprise to Wall Street analysts, given

BioWorld Today Staff Writer Not sure what to buy this holiday season for the biotech exec who has everything? Looking for something more creative and memorable than a gift card? Wish you knew what your colleagues really wanted? Fear not, BioWorld's first annual biotech holiday gift guide is here. A recent survey showed that 34 percent of people couldn't remember any of the holiday gifts they received last year. To help you stand out from the pack, we polled biotech industry veterans to find

BioWorld Perspectives Contributing Writer Editor's note: Mike Williams is adjunct professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, from where he publishes his personal views on today's drug discovery industry. Biotech has come a long way since its beginnings on the West Coast in the 1970s, being viewed frequently, if not at times desperately, as the solution to improving on the success paradigm in drug discovery. Biotechs Are California Dreamin' From a greater comfort with the inherent risk

BioWorld Today Staff Writer Has holiday shopping for your biotech friends and colleagues got you stumped? Gift cards aren't the safe standby they once were, with so many big retailers going bankrupt. And it's hard to think about splurging on material goods when you're busy stretching one year's worth of cash across three years. So what should you buy for your stressed out C-suite team or the banker who helped you scrape together that financing? How do you thank the friend who reviews your

BioWorld International Correspondent LONDON — UK biotech is at a "breaking point" said 22 of its leading figures as they joined the queue of industries looking for financial help, calling for 1 billion (US$1.5 billion) of government support to save the sector. That would fund the creation of a National Biomedical Public/Private Partnership to consolidate the small, cash-starved companies and provide large-scale funding for bigger, quoted companies that have the prospect of reaching a market

BioWorld Today Washington Editor WASHINGTON — Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, last week asked President-Elect Barack Obama not to appoint any current senior FDA official as commissioner or interim chief of the agency. Stupak, who has convened 16 hearings over the past two years focused on problems at the FDA, did not name any specific agency officials he had a grudge against in his Dec. 3 letter to Obama, but

BioWorld Perspectives Contributing Writer Editor's note: Ilene Schneider, a freelance writer and public relations consultant specializing in biotechnology and health care, is based in Irvine, Calif. A new administration in the White House could mean a new lease on life for the life sciences. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to invest in the physical and life sciences as soon as possible. Especially significant is Obama's commitment to lift restrictions on providing federal money for

Cranky commentary by Cynthia Robbins-Roth Just in Time for Christmas! Trying to find just the right gift idea for those upper-class relatives who always look down on your presents at the holidays? A team at Northwestern University has developed a polymer patch embedded with nanodiamonds — not just any diamonds, but trendy nanodiamonds! The ultra-high surface area acts as a slow-release depot for the anticancer drug doxorubicin. Initial studies showed the patch can carry more than a month of

BioWorld Perspectives is a free, weekly e-zine that offers unique viewpoints on developments within the biotechnology industry. Although published by the editors of BioWorld Today, the opinions expressed in BioWorld Perspectives do not reflect those of BioWorld Today or its editors. The approach taken with BioWorld Perspectives is to provide you with a fresh outlook on topics that you can't find elsewhere. You'll be able to read a variety of opinions and shared insight on the companies, trends

BioWorld Today Correspondent LONDON - There was a second and final rejection of the University of Wisconsin's infamous WARF human embryonic stem cell patent from the European Patent Organization (EPO) last week. EPO's highest board of appeal confirmed a decision handed down in June that it would be against the "public order" to grant the patent since it requires the destruction of an embryo to apply the method for preserving pluripotent stem cells in vitro without the cells losing the ability

Staff Writer Galapagos NV and MorphoSys AG teamed up to discover and develop antibodies to treat rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and other bone and joint diseases. The companies will share all costs and revenues equally, with Galapagos using its adenoviral discovery platform to provide targets, and MorphoSys using its HuCal Gold platform to generate fully human antibodies against those targets. During a conference call with investors, Galapagos CEO Onno van de Stolpe called

Assistant Managing Editor Danish biotech firm Zealand Pharma A/S partnered with Helsinn Healthcare in a potential €140 million (US$176.8 million) deal to develop its early clinical-stage glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-2 receptor agonist, ZP1846, in chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID). Under the terms, Zealand granted Helsinn worldwide rights to the compound, except for the Nordic countries, where Zealand retains marketing rights. In addition to the potential €140 million - the company did not