Acrux (ASX:ACR) has commenced dosing in a Phase I clinical trial utilising its MDTS transdermal spray to deliver anti-nausea drug granisetron. The pharmacokinetics trial will compare absorption of the drug, which is used to treat nausea in chemotherapy patients, against that of an oral formulation in six healthy volunteers. [ + ]

Brisbane biotech BioProspect (ASX:BPO) has received a knockback from Sumitomo Australia as a potential licensee for its eucalypt-derived biocide Qcide, as a natural pesticide to control carpet beetles and clothes moths. [ + ]

Trading in shares of Melbourne drug developer Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) was halted today, in the wake of after the developers of the promising new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri withdrew it from the market after a patient died from a rare viral infection of the brain. [ + ]

Who is Richard Opara? That was the question being asked by many industry observers this week, as his name surfaced in connection with two sudden biotech board reshuffles, signalling that a double coup was underway. [ + ]

Anti-microbial company Chemeq's (ASX:CMQ) half-year loss has soared 242 per cent to $14.3 million, as the company poured $7.3 million into the commissioning and validation of its Rockingham manufacturing facility. Research and development expenses also increased to from $1.2 million to $2.1 million. [ + ]

US drug giant Pfizer intends to add 100 researchers in Japan by the end of 2006 to a total of 400 as part of its global push to accelerate its drug discovery drive. [ + ]

The task of identifying Earth's estimated 10 million species has daunted biologists for centuries - fewer than two million have been named. Using a technique called DNA barcoding, researchers at Rockefeller University and two Canadian institutions have uncovered four new species of North American birds.

Private Brisbane biotech VasCam has begun animal trials of a technology that would allow heart-bypass patients, or patients with blocked leg arteries, to grow their own replacement blood vessels. [ + ]

Disappointing sales in both the US and Australia, and higher marketing and administration costs have contributed to a lower half-year profit for Sirtex (ASX:SRX). Although sales revenue grew 8 per cent to $4.9 million, the company's gross profit fell to $3.57 million from $3.6 million in 2003. [ + ]

Researchers have discovered that taipan venom contains potent peptides that may prevent death from congestive heart disease. [ + ]

A new collaboration between Gribbles Molecular Science and Sequenom may pave the way for diagnostics which link pathology expertise with genetics, and could have applications in personalised medicine and foresenic identification. [ + ]

Decades ago, ranchers who moved their sheep up to the high-altitude summer pastures of the Californian Sierra found lambs were being stillborn with gross deformities, including a distorted skull with a single eye, a forebrain with the hemispheres are fused into a single mass, and lacking a medulla, a collapsed chest without lungs, and a long proboscis-like nose. [ + ]

It’s the news they have all been waiting for. After years of living under the threat of another devastating epidemic of downy mildew, a disease similar to that which caused the Irish potato famine, India’s poorest farmers have been offered a lifeline in the form of a new disease-resistant hybrid. The hybrid has been produced in record time using modern biotechnology techniques.

As an initiative of the Science Industry Action Agenda, the SIA, with support from DEST and the Victorian government, will assist 20 companies and research entities exhibit products, technologies and processes at PittCon 2005 in February 2005. The objective of showcasing Australian SETI (Science Engineering Technology Innovation) to an international audience is to:

Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL) has reported a half-year loss before tax of AUD$14.2 million, and with cash of only $11.6 million at December 31. the company is watching its pennies extremely carefully. [ + ]