Industry News
New movement laboratory launched
Austin Health's new movement laboratory has been opened at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre in Kew, Melbourne to provide a clinical movement analysis service to assist people with disabilities to become more independent. [ + ]
Acrux posts steady revenue growth
Melbourne-based Acrux (ASX:ACR) posted revenue of AUD$4.8 million for the year ended June 30, 2005, up $1 million from the previous financial year, but also saw an increase in its net loss from $4.2 million in the previous year to $6 million in 2004-05. [ + ]
Ambri revenue, loss down
Ambri (ASX:ABI) saw a decrease in its revenue for the 2004-05 financial year of 27 per cent to $1 million (from $1.4 million in the previous year) but the company's loss was also down 22 per cent to $9 million. [ + ]
Peptech cheered by prostate cancer diagnostic trial
Sydney peptide therapeutics company Peptech (ASX:PTD) has reported positive results from a trial of a prostate cancer diagnostic developed by its joint-venture partner Biosceptre International. [ + ]
Benitec wins IP stoush
Gene therapy company Benitec (ASX:BLT) has weathered a head-on challenge from US rival, Nucleonics, to its key DNA-directed RNA-interference (ddRNAi) patents. [ + ]
Invitrogen opens Australian cGMP manufacturing facility
Invitrogen has opened a AU$3.4 million cGMP bioproduction facility focused on the development of safe and consistent bovine sera products and reagents used in basic research and the production of vaccines and biotherapeutic drugs for world markets.
[ + ]CSL grants Merck licence for Iscomatrix
Australia's biggest biotech, Melbourne's CSL (ASX:CSL) has signed a license and option agreement with Merck & Co, granting the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company certain rights and options to use CSL's Iscomatrix adjuvant in its pipeline of investigational vaccine products. [ + ]
In brief: Meditech, Psivida, Regenera, Mesoblast
Cancer biopharma Meditech Research (ASX:MTR) has been offered a AUD$2.98 million AusIndustry Commercial Ready Grant over the next three years towards the development and commercialisation of its lead anti-cancer product HyCAMP, which is in Phase II clinical testing. [ + ]
Former AustCancer CEO to head US biotech
Paul Hopper, who until earlier this year was at the helm of Australian company AustCancer (now Avantogen) has been named the CEO of New York-based clinical stage drug developer Evolve Oncology. [ + ]
Sales drive up CogState revenues
Melbourne-based neurodiagnostic specialist CogState (ASX:CGS) has reported revenues of AUD$1.5 million for the financial year ending June 30 2005, nearly three times more than the previous corresponding period, largely through sales to major pharmaceutical companies and research institutions. [ + ]
Another flat quarter, but PwC expects biotech recovery
The latest edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' quarterly BioForum report is published today, and shows a second consecutive decline in Australian life science stocks in Q4 of the 2004-05 financial year. [ + ]
Chemeq posts $60.7m loss
Antimicrobial specialist Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) posted a $60.7 million loss for 2004-04, 509 per cent greater than the $9.9 million it posted in the previous financial year. [ + ]
WA team IDs leukaemia key
Researchers at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) have identified a key gene in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) that could serve both as a prognostic marker and a target for new drugs to treat the disease. [ + ]
Event to focus on funding
A breakfast meeting in Sydney this Friday will explore ways in which technology-based companies can get their hands on Commonwealth and NSW government grants. [ + ]
Mayne first to offer Medsaic's DotScan as leukaemia test
Mayne Pathology (ASX:MAY) has agreed to provide Sydney-based Medsaic's DotScan test for leukaemia and lymphoma in four states in Australia, with an official launch of the technology at Mayne Health Laverty Pathology in Sydney today. [ + ]