Industry News
NHGRI confirms 'roo genome project support
The NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has confirmed that it will provide funding to Australia's tammar wallaby sequencing project to allow at least 2X sequence coverage to be obtained. [ + ]
Panbio, La Trobe win malaria diagnostic grant
Brisbane diagnostics company Panbio (ASX:PBO) and La Trobe University have received a $117,000 development grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council to develop a simple, rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for malaria. [ + ]
Biota steps up Glaxo lawsuit
Biota Holdings (ASX:BTA) has filed a statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, moving its litigation against GlaxoSmithKline forward a step. [ + ]
AGT merger partner's cancer drug results promising
Clinical results from AGT Bioscience's merger partner ChemGenex Therapeutics' Phase I/II trial of cancer drug Quinamed, released yesterday at ASCO in New Orleans and BIO in San Francisco, have shown promising anti-cancer activity, the company has claimed. [ + ]
Peptech and Agenix call off merger
Sydney-based Peptech (ASX:PTD) and Brisbane-based Agenix (ASX:AGX) have called off their merger, citing Peptech's inability to provide Agenix with details of possible royalties due from Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Centocor. [ + ]
BIO 2004: Call for closer Singapore-Australia biotech ties
The Singapore and Australian biotechnology industries have synergies that should be exploited, the director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, Dr Swan-Gin Beh, has told a session at the BIO 2004 conference in San Francisco this week. [ + ]
La Trobe research offers new hope for MS therapy
It's too early to announce a new dawn, but there's a distinct glow on one of neuroscience's darkest horizons. The enigma of the paralysing central nervous system disorder, multiple sclerosis, may be nearing solution. [ + ]
LCT diabetes technology makes debut in Italian trial
Italian researchers have transplanted insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells into a 37-year old man with type 1 diabetes, in the first of a 10-patient pilot trial of a potentially revolutionary treatment for diabetes developed by Australian biomedical company Living Cell Technologies (NSX:LCT). [ + ]
Chemeq raises $10m
Perth pharmaceutical company Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has raised AUD$10 million from a share placement to institutional and private clients with Bell Potter Securities. [ + ]
ASCO: Celgene says blood cancer patients respond to Thalidomide
Thalidomide, a cause of severe birth defects in children in the 1950's, and currently approved for the treatment of leprosy, was found to be effective in a clinical trial for treating patients with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. [ + ]
Sirtex to manufacture isotopes in US
Sydney biomedical company Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX) has announced it has purchased a US manufacturing site in Wilmington, Massachusetts, at a cost of US$990,000, funded though a mortgage over the property. [ + ]
Panbio nets grant, moves most manufacturing to Brisbane
Medical diagnostics company Panbio (ASX:PBO) has been awarded a Queensland government grant towards the cost of developing its new R&D and manufacturing facility in Brisbane. [ + ]
Proteome Systems develops EPO test for drug cheat athletes
Sydney company Proteome Systems has developed a new test to unmask endurance athletes who try to gain an illegal aerobic edge with the red blood-cell booster erythropoietin (EPO). [ + ]
NSCC, Stem Cell Sciences to team up on ES cell lines
Stem Cell Sciences (SCS), the former Melbourne company now based in the UK, is to collaborate with Australia's National Stem Cell Centre on new human embryonic stem cell lines to be derived by SCS and Melbourne IVF. [ + ]
Ambri system makes clinical debut
The first diagnostic system to use an ion-channel switch, able to sense tiny concentrations of a specific molecule, has been installed in the pathology laboratory at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. [ + ]
