Novogen (ASX: NRT) subsidiary Marshall Edwards (LSE AIM: MSH, Nasdaq: MSHL) has reported that its lead drug phenoxodiol can slow down the progression of hormone refractory prostate cancer. [ + ]

Shares in Solbec Pharmaceuticals (ASX:SBP) jumped almost 70 per cent to $0.21 today after preliminary results from a study conducted by the Tumour Immunology Group at the University of Western Australia indicated that the company's cancer drug, Coramsine, was effective in treating and preventing mesothelioma in a mouse model of the cancer. [ + ]

In the New Age of "natural" remedies, there's no more natural a remedy for pain than the brain's native analgesic, endomorphin. It's an easy synthesis: a simple pentapeptide, that would be an instant winner for headaches and chronic neuropathic pain, if only someone could bottle it in tablet form. [ + ]

The Australian government has quietly reversed its position on therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research by co-sponsoring the Costa Rica-US led proposal to the UN to ban all forms of human cloning including so-called therapeutic cloning and the experimental use of embryonic stem cells. [ + ]

Imugene (ASX: IMU) has raised AUD$5 million through the sale of new shares primarily to institutional clients of Southern Cross Equities. The shares will be issued in two parts, with the first tranche occurring this week, and the second tranche following shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting to be held in January 2005. [ + ]

Melbourne drug-discovery biotech Cytopia has made it onto the dance card of the world's largest volunteer-supported cancer research organisation, Cancer Research UK after the UK agency agreed to take Cytopia's promising anti-cancer drug CYT997 into its clinical trial program. [ + ]

Adelaide biotech GroPep (ASX:GRO) expects to deliver a net profit after tax of approximately $1 million for the six months to 31 December 2004 following sales growth of its cell culture products. Net profit for the full year 2004/05 is expected to be at least the $1.5 million. [ + ]

Sydney's Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL) is slimming down and adopting a more muscular sales and marketing strategy for its proteomics technology suite in the northern hemisphere. [ + ]

The US Food and Drug Administration has said that Senate testimony by a veteran FDA researcher regarding safety risks for five drugs does not reflect the views of the agency. [ + ]

Biotechnology companies Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals have announced that US regulators have approved their drug Tarceva for treating the most common form of lung cancer. [ + ]

Sydney drug re-engineering company Eiffel Technologies (ASX:EIF) been signed by a US-based specialty pharmaceutical company to experimentally reformulate a popular asthma drug to improve its activity. [ + ]

Melbourne biotech, CogState, has announced it has been awarded a major federal government grant for further development into its novel drug treatment for Parkinson's Disease.

The Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF) has teamed up with Californian proteomics company LumiCyte (LCI) to further develop LCI's recently launched STS biochip platform. [ + ]

Acrux (ASX:ACR) has received a US$250,000 milestone payment from its partner Vivus triggered by the granting of a US patent extending the coverage of its proprietary transdermal drug delivery system. [ + ]

Melbourne drug development company Iliad Chemicals will collaborate with scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) on the development of a new class of compounds with the potential to treat multiple sclerosis. [ + ]