The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

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

Monthly Archives: November 2010

Monday Biotech Deal Review: November 29, 2010

 Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review.  I hope our American readers had a very happy thanksgiving weekend, but hopefully there’s still some room left for your weekly digest of biotech deals.  This week witnessed the closing of the US$52M IMRIS financing [Ed. -- as well as a rafter of other deals].  Read on to learn more about these and [...]

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s your dose of weekly biotech news, all wrapped up in one weekend-friendly package thanks to our Twitter stream @crossborderbio: RT @CVCACanada: A Brave New World – Amid industry turmoil a rash of new VC players emerge in Canada – via @Techvibes http://bit.ly/dKErHk RT @mikesgene: Canada’s transgenic Enviropig is stuck in a genetic modification poke http://bit.ly/g2M6aQ [...]

Friday Science Review: November 26, 2010

Ivermectin Nails Neurotransmission in Brugia malayi McGill University Published in PNAS, November 16, 2010 Well over 100 million people are currently infected with Brugia malayi, a microscopic nematode that causes lymphatic filariasis. Infection can eventually lead to the chronic inflammatory disease known as elephantiasis. In an effort to better understand this parasitic creature Dr. Timothy [...]

Regenerative Medicine Takes Off: En Route to Reality?

A month or so after Geron Corp. initiated the world’s first embryonic stem cell-based clinical trial, UK-based ReNeuron has announced that it has treated its first stroke patient with expanded populations of neural stem cells at the Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, in Glasgow. The PISCES (Pilot Investigation of Stem Cells in Stroke) [...]

UK Invests £200M In Technology Innovation Centres, Goes with Fraunhofer Model

Prime Minister David Cameron recently made an announcement outlining the UK government’s plan to allocate £200M for the development of a series of technology innovation centres. They will be designed around the Fraunhofer model implemented in Germany with the vision of creating a multitude of specialized incubators each with a unique technological interest. The announcement [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: November 22, 2010

Welcome to your Monday Deal Review.  There was quite a bit of Canada / U.S. crossborder investment activity last week, with a $700M note offering by Valeant, IMRIS’ USD$52M public offering, and both IMRIS and Tekmira announcing their listing on the NASDAQ.   Read on to learn more, as well as the usual summaries of recent [...]

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s your dose of weekly biotech news, all wrapped up in one weekend-friendly package thanks to our Twitter stream @crossborderbio: RT @CVCACanada: BDC’s Young Entrepreneur Awards Applications are now open!http://eqent.me/dlH2Rx RT @dgmacarthur: RT @genomicslawyer GLR Post: Recap from the Partners Personalized Medicine Conferencehttp://bit.ly/bGm6Nv RT @Michael_Gilman..just getting started on the West Coast,have a look at today’s [...]

Friday Science Review: November 19, 2010

Mobile Phones Increase Patient Adherence in HIV Clinical Study University of Nairobi ♦ University of Manitoba ♦ University of British Columbia Published in Lancet, November 9, 2010 Researchers recently demonstrated the effectiveness of mobile phones as a tool to bolster patient adherence to an HIV treatment regime. Better adherence to treatment reduced HIV-1 RNA load [...]

Biotech in the Provinces: OBEST Launches Regional Meetings in Ontario; Western Canada Innovation Agreement to Provide Seed Funding

The Ontario Bioscience Economic Strategy Team (OBEST)* is holding regional cluster meetings starting today that will be chaired by bioscience CEOs from across the province. OBEST launched its evergreen strategy to sustain and grow the province’s health-science industry last week with a meeting of the OBEST advisory committee, which is chaired by Dr. Daniel Billen from [...]

New Firm, New Contributors Contribute to New Look

This morning Ogilvy Renault (my law firm) announced a planned merger with UK-based Norton Rose that will give us fantastic international capabilities, including a new global life sciences focus highlighting our Canadian strength. In addition to being a ground-breaking move for a Canadian firm, it is also exciting for the blog, where reporting has always [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: November 15, 2010

Welcome to the Monday Biotech Deal Review for November 15, 2010.  Read on to learn about IMRIS’ proposed U.S. IPO, a mysterious merger in the making, and heart lasers (and how much they go for), together with your usual assortment of private placements, announcements and other biotech news. 

This Week in the Twitterverse

Here’s your dose of weekly biotech news, all wrapped up in one weekend-friendly package thanks to our Twitter stream @crossborderbio: RT @mikesgene: Ontario Genomics Institute Invests in Personalized Medicine for Age-related Macular Degeneration http://bit.ly/dl9VwC w/video 23 hours ago GrowthWorks solicits votes against VenGrowth-Covington deal, wants time to make its own offer. http://eqent.me/cWw2aK via @CVCACanada TSX’s Raymond King [...]

Friday Science Review: November 12, 2010

Although I already commented on the stem cell discovery that came out of McMaster earlier this week, I felt that a more detailed look at the methods section would be needed to do justice to the science. After all, the true value of this discovery is in the protocol utilized to make it. On Fibroblasts [...]

Approval Pathway for Biosimilars and Interchangeable Biological Products: Issues from the FDA’s Public Hearing

On November 2nd and 3rd the FDA held a public hearing to address the challenges it will face in the implementation of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act). This act established an abbreviated pathway for follow-on biologics (a.k.a. biosimilars) that are either “highly similar” or “interchangeable” with previously approved biologics. [...]

Stem Cell Breakthrough: Direct Conversion of Human Skin to Blood

A breakthrough in Canadian stem cell research this week, published in Nature, as researchers led by Dr. Mick Bhatia of the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University have devised methods to differentiate human skin cells into blood cells. In many differentiation protocols researchers are forced to first reprogram cells to a pluripotent [...]

Monday Deal Review: November 8, 2010

Welcome to your Monday Deal Review.  The Canadian biotech sector was fairly busy this week, with approximately $17M in investment money flowing into biotech companies reviewed below.  Valeant is certainly raking the leaves this fall following the Biovail merger, settling lawsuits, entering a $1.5bn securities repurchase program, and entering strategic agreements this week after ending [...]

This Week in the Twitterverse

Some weekend reading from our Twitter stream @crossborderbio: RT @mikesgene: Personal genomics tests prompt lifestyle changes http://bit.ly/9QsQFx #genome RT @dgmacarthur: Y Bombard: newborn blood spots are stored for up to 18 years in US, up to 30 years in Canada #ashg2010 U.S. Therapeutic Discovery Stimulus Reaches Biotechs in Canada, Israel, Germany http://ow.ly/19NEBF RT @patentlyo: Constitutional Inventors, [...]

Friday Science Review: November 5, 2010

A Deadly Competitor: The marine bacterium Vibrio cholerae has built-in mechanisms that may allow it to compete with other species of bacteria and better colonize its host. Researchers recently discovered a secretion system (T6SS) in V. cholerae allowing it to inject toxic substrates directly into the cytoplasm of prey. Now a group at the University [...]

U.S. Therapeutic Discovery Stimulus Reaches Biotechs in Canada, Israel, Germany

As part of the health reform bill, the U.S. launched a $1 billion Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit/grant stimulus program. The program announced grant recipients this week, deploying $1 billion just over 7 months after the law was passed, and 5 months after the IRS guidelines were released implementing the project. A full list of [...]

Q3 Canadian Healthcare Review – Weakness Continues BUT Some Bright Spots

Data in the Q3 2010 Canadian Healthcare Review from the Equicom Group (co-authored by James Smith, Vice President Healthcare at Equicom and myself) shows a continuation of the weakness in biotech financing which we have seen in 2009 and 2010. Bounceback From the Financial Crisis May Have Masked 2009 Weakness While the level of funding [...]

Monday Deal Review: November 1, 2010

Welcome to the Monday Deal Review for November 1, 2010.  This week’s review contains the news of a possible recapitalization of Angiotech, following its deferral of interest payments on 7.75% Senior Subordinated Notes due October 1, 2010.  Read on to learn more, as well as other happenings from last week’s biotech scene.

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