For every scientific advance I cover, there is another that I look at with regret and ignore. With the increase in overall scientific output, the fact that there is lots of good research that I never get to write about will not change any time soon. There are also those stories that our readers need to know about, but do not lend themselves well to covering as a story. Retractions and back-and-forth disagreements between labs can be in this category; so can the third excellent paper on a very similar topic within a week or two, as can findings that...

When I was blogging for BNET, one of my favorite posts chronicled the hilarious battle of the bands being waged between laboratory supply companies on YouTube. And it got me thinking: why do lab supply firms get to have all the fun? You’ve got Roche AG’s diagnostic division using a Motley-Poison-Whitesnake style rock anthem and power ballad to promote its xCELLigence cellular analysis system. And there’s Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., the forefathers of funniness, with their “We Are the World” tribute to PCR and my personal favorite, the Village People spoof “GTCA.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEaX3MiDow&feature=related[/youtube] But who’s representin’ for biotech? Please post in...

Scientists at Beijing University of Chemical Technology have reported a way to express human-derived gelatin in yeast cells, and suggest that human-derived gelatin might be a useful alternative to pig-and cow derived gelatin for use in the food industry. This, in turn, has set the blogosphere abuzz: Is it vegetarian? Cannibalistic? Just plain gross? Some blogs have compared this to San Francisco company FibroGen Inc., which is making vaccine and biologics stabilizers. But medical uses seem different. I’m not sure what FibroGen intends to put into its gelatin capsules, but what if it’s a recombinant therapeutic protein? Does the yuck...

OK, I officially promise never to quote Barbra’s songs again . . .but, with the 2011 BIO International Convention just a mere three weeks ago – it seems like a distant memory for some of us and a blur for sleep-deprived others. BioWorld Today provided full coverage of the best breakout sessions, tweeted madly and blogged about everything from the Agony of de Feet to Four Days Later: The De-Evolution of a #2011BIO Attendee. But did you know we also shot video of your friends and colleagues along with a few high-profile folks? Check out our interview with Nigel Gaymond,...

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting kicked off the month of June as, arguably, the biggest event in the life sciences milieu, with 30,000-plus attendees and an inconsistent mélange of dispiriting and heartening news and data, while the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) concluded the month with half that attendance, but with immeasurably more enthusiasm, excitement and expectations. Don't get me wrong — both events are excellently produced and loaded with germane details; however, when my restless mind sees differences, nothing is above satirizing. It's like Halloween for the health care industry vs. a birthday celebration for biotechnology....

Placebos clearly have an effect on patient’s subjective feelings of illness. Many a rueful drug developer, especially of antidepressants, can attest to that. But whether they have a physical effect has not been studied. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have compared three different treatments for asthma; they reported their results in the July 13, 2011, online edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. The treatments were inhaled Albuterol, which is the standard treatment for asthma attacks; two different forms of placebo (an inactive inhaler and sham acupuncture); and no treatment at all. The researchers found that neither...

It doesn’t take a PhD in economics to come up with practical solutions to jumpstart our economy and create jobs. But it does take guts – and real-world vision – to implement change that makes a difference. One simple solution would be a tax break on overseas profits. As we have reported in BioWorld Today, the Freedom to Invest Act, H.R. 1834, would do just that. The bill, introduced in May, allows the repatriation of more than $1 trillion in overseas earnings at a 5.25 percent tax rate. But the Joint Committee on Taxation pooh-poohed the idea, saying it could...

We just finished running the numbers for biotech fundraising in the first half of 2011, and . . . drum roll please . . . the numbers are good! Well, they’re good if you’re a publicly traded, pre-commercial biotech, anyway. Overall, biotech companies raised a total of $13.3 billion in the first half of 2011, up a whopping 64 percent over the $8.1 billion raised in the first half of 2010, according to data from BioWorld Insight and BioWorld Snapshots. That breaks down into three categories: $2.1 billion raised by private biotechs, $4.6 billion raised in initial and follow-on public...

BioWorld Today Contributing Writer   If you do a web search on the term “cancer cure,” you’ll get pages and pages of conspiracy theories, alternative medicine sites, and home-cooked “natural” remedies. Some of them, like baking soda and maple syrup (I kid you not) are probably harmless. Some of them cross the line into deception. But what you won’t find, as you click through pages and pages of snake oil, is a legitimate, mainstream medical site with information on curing cancer. The focus is on “controlling” the disease, “inducing” remission, maintaining “complete response,” increasing “overall survival,” and...

This year marked my fifth BIO International Convention since joining the BioWorld team. I love the BIO meeting. It’s a great way to learn about new trends in the industry, discover potential sources for future BioWorld stories and finally put a lot of faces to names of people I’ve only talked to over the phone. Plus, the parties are fun. But it is a completely crazy schedule. And every year, I’ve found myself moving from different levels of alertness and exhaustion over the four-day period, though I admit a lot of is my own...