The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Biotechnology, Health and Business in Canada, the United States and Worldwide

Monthly Archives: June 2010

Key Quotes from the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision in Bilski Shows No Current Impact on Biotech

Many expected the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski to have a far-reaching impact on methods patents, including biotechnology diagnostics and drug development. That turned out not to be the case, with the Court deciding on narrow grounds that the actual patent at issue was improperly granted and reminding the Federal Circuit that it prefers [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: June 28, 2010

We follow a number of trends here at the blog, and two of them showed up as Canadian deals this week. Add those to the Biovail-Valeant merger, Æterna’s offering and a whole slew of commercial deals, and it’s been a pretty big week in Canadian deal-making.

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s some reading for the weekend from our Twitter stream on @crossborderbio: Dutch and Canadian giants launch VC venture. http://bit.ly/cndCsg More TRIUMF funding. Must be the name. RT @CBCHealth: UBC isotope lab could help stem shortage http://bit.ly/bGmYHs  Good stuff. RT @mikesgene: Personalized Medicine Get Boost from Genome B.C. http://bit.ly/d5yNdk   RT @CBCHealth: Cystic fibrosis survivors over 40 [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: June 21, 2010

This week saw a slew of licensing and commercial deals, including HIV programs for MedMira in Nigeria and Dignitas in Malawi. On the securities side, Aquinox’s $25 million B round headlined a $47 million week. Rounding out the week is Enerkem’s demonstration project funding, which will go towards reducing emissions from biorefineries.

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s some reading for the weekend from our Twitter stream on @crossborderbio: RT @FierceBiotech @Kineticos: Biotech Race for $1B in Government Money Begins Monday http://ow.ly/20i6e New Post: Health Canada’s Pharmacovigilance Program Provides Consumers with (Consumer-Unfriendly) Form for Direct Re… http://ow.ly/17NaDB Things that make you go “hmmm”… RT @CVCACanada: Richardson returns $1B, gets out of fund business [...]

Health Canada’s Pharmacovigilance Program Provides Consumers with (Consumer-Unfriendly) Form for Direct Reporting of Adverse Effects

Health Canada added a potentially valuable pharmacovigilance tool to its post-market surveillance arsenal today — a web form for direct consumer reporting of adverse drug events. Unfortunately, the implementation is terrible. The goal was “to make it even easier for consumers to report side effects to drugs and other health products,” but I doubt most consumers [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: June 14, 2010

This week saw a series of transactions bringing Patient Home Monitoring to the TSXV with an accompanying private placement and a shiny new SEDA from (who else) Yorkville; ConjuChem is (pending court approval) on its way out of CCAA with some cash on hand; and the struggle between Northstar and its ex-CEO continues in the [...]

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s some reading for the weekend from our Twitter stream on @crossborderbio: RT @FierceBiotech: Hospira gains EMA OK for Neupogen biosimilar. http://bit.ly/adeduG Smart, well-illustrated overview of the challenges facing big pharma drug pipelines, by Megan McArdle at The Atlantic http://bit.ly/dya7Vo Australian Myriad lawsuit launched by consumer group Cancer Voices and Yvonne D’Arcy, a Brisbane woman w/ [...]

Friday Science Review: June 11, 2010

Catch up on these genetics stories between World Cup soccer games… Genetic Links to Autism: Phase 2 results of the Autism Genome Project mapping the genetics of autism is reported this week in Nature. Researchers used the latest microarray technology to identify a trend that autism patients carry more insertion and deletion mutations affecting their [...]

Biotech’s Murky IPO Window Increases M&A Attractiveness

A recent press release from Burrill & Company points out that only 1 of 8 U.S. biotech IPOs in 2010 is currently trading above its IPO price. IMRIS was the last Canadian biotech IPO, completed in November 2007 at $6.00, and it is currently trading at $5.50 after dipping under $2 in late 2008. Facing these [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: June 7, 2010

This week saw a resurgence of deal activity on the Canadian landscape. Lots of good news here, including Resverlogix’s [$9.2m] haul and a $30m exit for Montreal’s Resonant Medical.  Not all was sunny though: Cynapsus downsized its unit price and Amorfix just downsized, while the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act got its own workout (har) this [...]

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s some reading for the weekend from our Twitter stream on @crossborderbio: Aiming just to catch up won’t do. This is why. RT @FierceBiotech: Huge Massachusetts biotech center gets green light. http://bit.ly/9iqdPO Can’t get their arms around it?Bit off more than they cld chew?..RT @JohnCFierce:No small biotech can..market an obesity drug. http://bit.ly/abeuvI Biotech IPOs Past 10 [...]

Friday Science Review: June 4, 2010

New fixes for spinal injury, Staph infection and cancers… Spinal Cord Self-Repair: A natural repair mechanism in our bodies may be the key to treating spinal-cord injuries.  Following a spinal cord injury, there is an increase in expression of serotonin receptors and the receptors are spontaneously active even in the absence of serotonin.  This autoactivation [...]

Biotech IPOs Past — 10 Years After the Biotech Venture Capital Boom of 1999-2001

You often hear people in this industry reminiscing about biotech booms and praying for another IPO window to open. The three most recent boom/windows were in 1995-1996, 1999-2001 and 2003-2005, each of which was impacted by both positive external market forces and a driving factor within biotech. The most spectacular boom/window was in 1999-2001, with [...]

Welcome to New Cross-Border Biotech Blog Contributor Wayne Schnarr

I am very excited to introduce Wayne Schnarr as a contributor to the Cross-Border Biotech Blog. Wayne has a ton of industry experience and always has smart things to say, as you will see for yourselves in a minute. Welcome!

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