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Merck Serono Launches Strategic Venture Capital Fund March 23, 2009 New Venture Capital Fund Will Invest in Biotech Start-up Companies Focused on Merck Serono's Core Therapeutic Areas GENEVA, Switzerland, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today the formation of 'Merck Serono Ventures', a strategic, corporate venture capital fund to invest in emerging biotechnology companies. The fund will support biotech start-up companies that have the potential to provide innovative products in Merck Serono's core therapeutic areas, in particular in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Oncology and Autoimmune & Inflammatory Diseases. 'Merck Serono Ventures' also will target companies developing innovative technologies that could enable the discovery and development of new products in Merck Serono's core therapeutic areas. Read more Indel Therapeutics Aims High With New Class of Antibiotics to Fight Hospital Infections March 30, 2009 Most biotech stories in 2009 are about companies hunkering down or otherwise playing it safe with incremental advances, not people just getting started with an audacious dream. Malcolm Kendall has one of those dreams. Read more BC's Health Research Community Gets Booster Shot March 30, 2009 Promising therapeutic ideas can often end up stuck in a lab, stalled before they ever reach the development or testing phase, let alone the patients who need them. Members of Canada's biopharmaceutical, academic and public sectors alike, however, are giving those ideas a much needed boost, dedicating resources and expertise to fast-track the development of drugs and tests that will save lives and money. Read more Stemware March 31, 2009 Allen Eaves mortgaged his home to found StemCell Technologies in 1993; it’s now B.C.’s most successful biotech and a compelling argument in Eaves’ case for two-tiered health care in Canada. Read more $15M SUPPORTS LIFE-SAVING HEALTH RESEARCH IN B.C. April 8, 2009 VICTORIA – The Province has provided another $15 million to help the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research support some of the world’s best health research, ministers Ida Chong and George Abbott announced today. Read more Announcing the Robert H. N. Ho Research Centre A new, state-of-the-art research centre will be established at Vancouver General Hospital, housing three internationallyrecognized research programs and named after Robert H.N. Ho in honour of his $15-million donation to VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. The building, announced by Premier Gordon Campbell, is also made possible through the support of federal (Canada Foundation for Innovation) and provincial (BC Knowledge Development Fund) funding programs as well as support from BC’s Ministry of Health. Read more Sea life passes the acid test April 14, 2009 UVic scientists study unusual mussels surviving in corrosive waters near a volcano Liquid carbon dioxide bubbling out of an undersea volcano makes the surrounding water so acidic that few creatures can live in it. But the animals that do survive are remarkable, reports biologist Verena Tunnicliffe at the University of Victoria and her colleagues... read more Cardiome hits potential $1B home run April 15, 2009 Merck pact could be Canada's largest of its kind Jim Middlemiss, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Vancouver's Cardiome Pharma Corp. inked a licensing deal last week with Merck & Co., Inc., which has the potential to be worth $1-billion if all the milestones are met, making it the largest licensing deal ever involving a Canadian life-sciences company, says James Hatton, the lawyer at Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy, who helped negotiate the deal. Read more Canada urgently needs to reinvest in the life sciences industry: PwC and BIOTECanada survey April 20, 2009 TORONTO, April 20 /CNW/ - The biggest challenge for the Canadian life science and biotechnology industry is the ability to access capital, according to the biennial PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Canadian Life Sciences Industry Forecast 2009, completed in collaboration with BIOTECanada. Read more Ancient remedy offers hope for diabetics
April 23, 2009 SFU researcher literally goes back to his roots to prove Ayurvedic plant compounds can lower blood glucose levels By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun | April 23, 2009 10:55 AM As a child in Sri Lanka, Mario Pinto would see his grandfather drink a tea brewed overnight with parts of an indigenous shrub. It was taken to control high blood sugar levels. Decades later, Pinto, who is vice-president of research at Simon Fraser University, has a new scientific appreciation for that particular slice of India's traditional Ayurvedic medicine. Read more John Babcook Profile: Lab Life April 28, 2009
British Columbia often ends up worse for wear when industries consolidate, but John Babcook and his team at Amgen Canada have proved that the province can benefit when multinationals come knocking. Read more UPDATE: Nordion and national lab working on new way to produce isotopes
April 28, 2009 Nordion, the local arm of Toronto-based life sciences conglomerate MDS Inc. (TSX:MDS) said it has signed an agreement with the TRIUMF lab to study the feasibility of producing a viable and reliable supply of photofission-produced molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) isotopes. Read more Local drug company Tekmira signs $58-million deal
May 12, 2009 Shares in Burnaby-based biotech company Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. shot up 37 per cent on Monday after the company announced it had signed a deal worth up to $58 million with Swiss health-care company Roche. Read more Biotech’s broken business model
May 12, 2009
In 2008, B.C. biotechs attracted only a third of the investment dollars they raised in 2007 Biotech analyst Karen Boodram has fewer colleagues than she did a year ago. Analyst coverage in the biotech industry is driven by quarterly reports, financings and advancements in product pipelines. But as important as those factors, if not more so, said Boodram, is having an audience: analysts need a customer base that has an appetite for investing in biotechnology companies. Read more |
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