Sleep device company Somnomed (ASX: SOM) made an impressive debut on the ASX today, opening 30 per cent above the IPO issue price of AUD$0.30 at $0.40. [ + ]

Antisense Therapeutics (ASX: ANP) has ended the financial year in great shape, as it plans to move forward on Phase IIa clinical trials following the completion of Phase I safety studies. [ + ]

Living Cell Technologies has closed its IPO after raising AUD$6.36 million from institutional and retail clients of underwriting stockbroker Taylor Collinson. [ + ]

Starpharma Holdings (ASX: SPL) has reported a reduced loss of AUD$5.5 million compared to last year's loss of $7.7 million, despite a slight drop in revenues. [ + ]

CSIRO Livestock Industries has developed an experimental vaccine to protect chickens from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza (bird flu).

CSL, the world's largest maker of human plasma products, tripled its annual net profit with the sale of its animal health business and its purchase of Aventis Behring at a discount to asset value. [ + ]

Melbourne brain-disease drug-discovery company Prana Biotechnology (ASX:PBT, NASDAQ:PRAN) has reported an after-tax loss of $9.9 million in the year to June. [ + ]

Johnson & Johnson has added a new warning to the label for rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade about blood disorders that sometimes were fatal, US regulators have announced. [ + ]

Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX: MBP) is preparing for a busy year, with the results due in November for its critical Phase IIb clinical trial of obesity drug AOD9604 and the move into formal preclinical development for a second product. [ + ]

Sydney’s Ambri Technology (ASX:ABI) has announced a net operating loss of $11.4 million for 2004, 35 per cent below last year’s loss of $17.6 million. The company also said earlier this week that its SensiDx ion-channel pregnancy test sensor had yet to meet the full requirements of a commercial viability trial (CVT) in a clinical setting. [ + ]

US life science technologies provider Invitrogen will spend $3 million to expand its cGMP facilities for manufacturing bovine serum-based products and reagents in NSW. [ + ]

Brisbane gene-silencing company Benitec (ASX:BLT) and renowned Los Angeles medical research centre City of Hope (COH) have joined forces to develop a genetic bear trap for the AIDS virus, that they hope will prolong the lives of AIDS patients. [ + ]

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CXS) reported an AUD$5.1 million loss for the 2003-2004, with around $2 million of the loss attributable to costs associated with the merger between Australian company AGT Biosciences and US company ChemGenex Therapeutics in late June. [ + ]

Perth biotech Solbec Pharmaceuticals (ASX:SPB) has expanded the Phase IIb clinical trial for its devil’s apple extract SBP002 – which is already showing promise as a treatment for mesothelioma -- and is commencing clinical trial identification studies against other forms of cancer. [ + ]

As reports emerge of a new avian influenza outbreak in Malaysia and rumours that pigs in China are now being infected with the virus herald a potential pandemic, Imugene (ASX: IMU) and CSIRO Livestock Industries have announced they will start an efficacy trial in coming weeks to evaluate their new avian influenza vaccine in chickens. [ + ]