The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

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

Monthly Archives: March 2011

Flow-Through Shares for Healthcare Part 2 of 3: Flow-Throughs in Mining and Oil & Gas

In Part 1 of this series, we mentioned two flow-through share financings completed in 2010 (chosen at random for illustrative purposes). The following discussion examines those financings in more detail, and puts them in the context of overall funds raised by the mining industry in recent years.

Monday Biotech Deal Review: March 29, 2011

Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review for March 28, 2011.  There was a flurry of financing activity last week, with over $76M raised or announced in biotech funds (not including the $60M Genome Canada investment announced by the Government of Canada).  Double-digit million-dollar deals included MethylGene’s $34.5M private placement announcement, Medicago’s $17M private placement [...]

Friday Science Review: March 25, 2011

Beware of Repeats The Hospital for Sick Children ♦ University of Toronto ♦ Published in PLoS Genetics, Mar. 10, 2011 Trinucleotide repeats are known to be associated with the onset of many diseases including Huntington’s disease and fragile X syndrome. These unstable elements can be transcribed bidirectionally and are dynamic, meaning their numbers can change within [...]

Flow-Through Shares for Healthcare Part 1 of 3: What Are Flow-Through Shares?

The extension of flow-through tax incentives to development stage biotech and healthcare companies has been discussed for many years, including twice previously on this blog (here and here). One of the most recent articles supporting this change was written by David Allan, a former investment banker who is a founder and current Chairman of YM Biosciences [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: March 21, 2011

Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review for March 21, 2011.  There was some interesting investment and commercial transactions announced and closed last week, including the $15M private placement announced by Novadaq, the $4M bond financing closed by SemBioSys and Pacgen’s announcement of a corporate makeover to accommodate its recent investments in the products of [...]

Friday Science Review: March 18, 2011

Alum Explained University of Calgary ♦ Published in Nature Medicine, Mar. 13, 2011 During the administration of a vaccine, an antigen is delivered along with another substance, known as an adjuvant, which arouses the immune system and increases overall effectiveness. The most common adjuvant in use today is alum, a trivalent aluminum-containing salt in crystal [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: March 14, 2011

Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review for March 14, 2011.  This week was a fairly slow week for Canadian biotech, but there were nevertheless a couple of interesting announcements.  Pharmagesic acquired over 90% of the restricted voting shares of WEX Pharmaceuticals marking the conclusion of its bid, and Theratechnologies has backed away from its [...]

Friday Science Review: March 11, 2011

Insulin + Pancreatic Stem Cells, Proof of Life University of Toronto ♦ Published in Cell Stem Cell, Mar. 4, 2011 The origin of insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells has been a matter of contentious debate. Some research groups have produced findings that would suggest β-cells duplicate themselves and that new β-cells do not arise from the differentiation [...]

Stability at the Top: A Look at Top Biotech VC Deals from 2007-2010

FierceBiotech published the top 15 biotech VC deals of 2010 last week, measured by dollars invested. Since they noted an overall uptick in investments in 2010, it seemed like a worthwhile time to look back. Here’s what U.S. VC investment in biopharma and medical devices looked like from 2007 to 2010 (normalized to 2007 levels): Not [...]

Monday Biotech Deal Review: March 7, 2011

Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review for March 7, 2011.  It was a busy week with numerous private and public investments, offerings by biotech companies (see Stem Cell Therapeutics and Adherex Technologies), as well as some interesting licensing activity.  Read on to learn more. 

Friday Science Review: March 4, 2011

The Origin of Meier-Gorlin Syndrome Dalhousie University ♦ University of Montreal ♦ University of British Columbia Published in Nature Genetics, Feb. 27, 2011 Researchers have mapped a locus for Meier-Gorlin syndrome (MGS), a rare genetic condition characterized by short stature, small ears, and reduced or absent kneecaps. A mutation in the ORC4 gene seems to be at [...]

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