New Proteome Systems chief executive Stephen Porges (ASX:PXL) believes the company is caught in the middle of a typical biotech transformation from its original focus as a tools business to a diagnostics and therapeutics business -- which is where its real future lies. [ + ]

Strict new ethics rules imposed on National Institutes of Health staff to prevent lucrative deals with drug companies may be loosened if warranted, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has said. [ + ]

Britain's SkyePharma is close to a deal on one of its lung drugs that could be worth US$160 million, the drug delivery firm has claimed, boosting its shares as it posted a narrower loss for 2004. [ + ]

A University of Sydney scientist has developed a software algorithm which improves the ability of the hearing-impaired to hear in noisy environments. [ + ]

A preliminary report by Australia's Productivity Commission has concluded that advances in medical science have benefited Australians, but have also been a major driver of increased spending on health. [ + ]

Keith Williams has stepped down from the helm of Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL), and the company has appointed strategic management specialist Stephen Porges as chief executive officer. [ + ]

Two Swiss drug developers have set out their stalls this month to test the market's remaining appetite for biotechnology IPOs, buoyed by the success of Swiss rivals and renewed investor interest in the battered drugs sector. [ + ]

A new program and online database developed in Victoria will offer laboratories all over the world a much better chance of avoiding false positives and false negatives when screening blood for viruses, particularly HIV and Hepatitis C. [ + ]

Drugmaker Allergan said quarterly net earnings fell slightly, and sales of Botox missed analyst forecasts, sending shares down 2 per cent. [ + ]

Human tissue is able to form new blood vessels throughout life. This mechanism, which is called angiogenesis, is essential notably in the case of myocardial infarction, stroke and limb ischemia. The very same mechanism, however, keeps tumors supplied with nutrients and oxygen thus enabling them to continue growing.

Cytopia (ASX:CYT) has received ethics approval to begin a Phase I clinical trial of its anti-cancer drug CYT997 at at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. The trial will be conducted in association with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Q-Pharm. Cytopia chief scientific officer Andrew Wilks said that the 30-patient trial would be a non-blinded, dose escalation study in patients with various cancers and could take between nine and twelve months. [ + ]

Having struck out in an attempt to broaden its shareholder base through a rights issue last month, Bresagen (ASX:BGN) will be asking shareholders to expand the range of investors who can subscribe to its back-up convertible note facility. [ + ]

Brisbane biotech Peplin (ASX:PEP) was celebrating some good news today, announcing that the pre-clinical results of the action of its lead anti-cancer compound PEP005 against leukaemia have been published in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. [ + ]

The federal government has released a discussion paper on Australia's growing shortage of skilled professionals in science, engineering and technology (SET). [ + ]

Isotechnika has said a pivotal trial of its experimental drug, ISA247, to treat psoriasis showed positive preliminary results. [ + ]