Biotech veteran Bob Moses, the chairman of Melbourne biotech company Meditech (ASX:MTR), had harsh words yesterday for the shareholders whose lack of support for the re-election of CEO Chris Carter as a director on the board led to both he and Carter resigning their positions. [ + ]

Shares in Sydney animal-health biopharma Imugene Limited (ASX:IMU) soared yesterday on news that animal trials have confirmed the efficacy of the company's new vaccine for controlling one of the international pig industry's most costly diseases. [ + ]

Brisbane-based pooled development fund Medica Holdings (ASX:MCA) is committing body and spirit to the drug-discovery race by taking a 100 per cent shareholding in its Melbourne subsidiary Cytopia -- and adopting Cytopia's name. [ + ]

Sydney-based biotech Peptech (ASX:PTD) and Brisbane-based Agenix (ASX:AGX) have revealed plans to merge, creating one of Australia's largest biotechnology companies with a market capitalisation of AUD$400 million. [ + ]

Building your credibility and getting past the introductory meeting are the two goals biotech companies going to BIO should keep in mind, according to US-based biotech communications specialist Doug MacDougall. [ + ]

The thing AstraZeneca finds hardest about its relationship with the Cooperative Research Centre for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases is coping with incompatible timezones. [ + ]

US biotechnology company Geron has taken a 25 per cent equity position in Austin Research Institute spin-off XenoTrans, in return for granting the company a non-exclusive licence to use Geron's nuclear transfer technology to produce transgenic pigs for xenotransplantation, and a share in future revenues. [ + ]

Melbourne immunotherapy developer Virax Holdings (ASX:VHL) has begun a pre-clinical trial of its novel candidate vaccine for late-stage prostate cancer at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre. [ + ]

Prana Biotechnology (ASX:PBT) has obtained agreements to raise US$20 million (AUD$27 million) from US institutional and professional investors through the sale of 3 million ADRs at US$5 per ADR, subject to shareholder approval. [ + ]

Adelaide biopharma GroPep (ASX:GRO) today announced its fourth consecutive quarter of positive operating and net cash flow. [ + ]

International agbiotech company Bayer CropScience has acquired a licence from CSIRO to develop new crops using the patented RNA interference (RNAi) gene-silencing technology developed by CSIRO Plant Industry researchers. [ + ]

AGT Biosciences (ASX:AGT) has merged with US company ChemGenex Therapeutics to create a genomics-driven pharmaceutical company with two products in Phase II clinical trials. [ + ]

CSIRO marine scientists have developed a technique that gives hope in the battle to stop the spread of aquatic pests.

Prof Suzanne Cory, director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, has been appointed a member of the Pope’s scientific advisory council, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. [ + ]

A British scientist has warned that Sanofi-Synthelabo's experimental obesity drug Acomplia could alter the way people think. [ + ]