With a little help from biotechnology, corn stalks, saw dust, and garbage can be converted into a fuel that could potentially reduce gasoline consumption by 25%, according to Iogen in Ottawa.

4,000 for a course of treatment.

CorbisWith pharma companies' pipelines relatively weak and many patents set to expire, 2004 is shaping up to be a strong year for mergers and acquisitions as firms look for a way to get quick access to products under development. In the first half of the year, acquisitions in the biotech-pharmaceutical industry nearly doubled to 315 from 177 in the last half of 2003, according to BioPharm Insight. Earlier this year Pfizer paid $1.42 billion (US) for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Esperion Therapeutics,

© g. Tompkinson/Photo Researchers, Inc.Drug companies and diagnostic test developers are increasingly teaming up to produce theranostics, a treatment strategy that packs a one-two punch: a diagnostic test that identifies patients most likely to be helped or harmed by a new medication, and targeted drug therapy based on the test results. Theranostic tests differ from traditional ones such as those for blood glucose, because the new tests are based on sophisticated technology involving geneti

A biotechnology stock, ImClone Systems of New York City, served as the root of Martha Stewart's insider-trading conviction, and life-science lawyers say that the biotech industry is ripe for more securities-related cases. Largely in response to the ImClone debacle, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated new policies that make it easier for these two agencies to cooperate on biotechnology cases. "Biotech has been hot for the last co

Activists campaigning to get AIDS treatments and other critical medicines to poor people around the world propose radical changes in the financing of global pharmaceutical research and development. The activists suggest that the World Trade Organization (WTO) discard global intellectual property protections and replace them with incentive programs for scientists. The companies that research, design, and produce the drugs would no longer support large sales teams to persuade physicians to prescri

Public support, market pressure, and potential competition with Big Pharma top list at BIO

At BIO, one report shows sector growth, while another finds that patents have leveled off

Courtesy of GenentechGenentech, the first US biotechnology company, has survived ugly patent disputes, product flops, and a Big Pharma partnership to become the biotech every company wants to be. The stock market value of the company, which makes the cancer drugs Herceptin and Rituxan, rose $7 billion (US), or 12%, in a single day in April based on promising data for a new lung-cancer treatment, Tarceva. That jump came less than a year after good results for Avastin in colon cancer trials sent t

PictureQuestA plain tablet in a no-name blisterpack. It could save a life.Or maybe not.Since 1994, the Food and Drug Administration has approved year-to-year increases in the number of new candidate drugs for human testing in the United States, rising from 3,350 in 1996 to 3,900 in 2002.1 But the number of drugs that successfully negotiate the trial process and ultimately receive FDA approval is frustratingly low. Despite pharmaceutical companies' and the National Institutes of Health's research

MANUFACTURING ON A LARGE SCALE:Courtesy of Biogen IdecWorkers calibrate and monitor equipment and production processes at a large-scale manufacturing facility.Biotech companies are focusing on manufacturing after years of struggling to come up with advances in the laboratory. As biotech finance sources become available and new products continue to reach the marketplace, research companies debate whether to become manufacturers as well.For drug discovery companies, adding manufacturing to their c

Elias Zerhouni listens to the gripes at his third town hall meeting with employees since becoming director of the National Institutes of Health nearly two years ago. The Bethesda, Md., campus lacks adequate parking. The new computer system is a mess. The parking lots are too dark.Zerhouni shares his problems, too. Congress wants him to explain why government scientists are earning millions in fees and stock options from private firms. The agency remains on edge as its the nation's first line of