Virtual start-up BioTheryX Inc. isn't trying to re-invent the wheel, but instead is taking the wheel off the old family car and installing it on a zippy new fuel-efficient model.

In 2009 the economy was in a free fall and no one knew when it would hit bottom. Yet an investment officer at a bank took a chance on a high-risk opportunity: a tiny company in New Haven, Conn. Helix Therapeutics LLC's CEO Joseph Catino said the investment officer told him, "I know you. I don't know squat about the technology, but I trust you guys and know you'll do this well."

The approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Yervoy (ipilimumab) is the first for the metastatic melanoma space in more than a decade. The New York-based pharma's CTLA-4-blocking antibody also was the first therapy to demonstrate a significant improvement in overall survival, and analysts are estimating the drug will bring in sales of $1 billion in the U.S. alone. (See BioWorld Today, March 28, 2011.)

Shares for Unigene Laboratories Inc. jumped as it announced, with partner Tarsa Therapeutics Inc., positive top-line data from their Phase III postmenopausal osteoporosis study.