Finishing up the merger disclosed at the end of last year with Zentaris AG, AEterna Laboratories Inc. entered into a convertible term loan facility for C$25 million (US$16.98 million) with two investors. (BioWorld Today)

Preliminary results from Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.'s Phase III trial with the obesity drug Axokine are being called mixed, but the market's reaction was unambiguous, taking away 56.6 percent of the stock's value.

Genentech Inc., called the "premier" biotechnology firm by Elise Wang, analyst with Salomon Smith Barney - and Wang is hardly alone in her opinion - stands as one of the more closely watched companies in the biotechnology sector (maybe even the most watched of all), and a spate of news early this month focused even more attention on the firm.

Last week's blowup of Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s antisense drug, Affinitak, in a Phase III trial for non-small-cell lung cancer placed a question mark above that category of therapeutics, but nobody is flying the white flag of surrender yet. (BioWorld Financial Watch)