> The CRO Covance and Eli Lilly have signed an agreement in which Covance will pay $50 million for a Lilly campus. Covance also signed a ten-year, $1.6 billion contract to provide Lilly drug development services. Report
> Pfizer will move its Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovatinon center headquarters to San Francisco's Mission Bay biotech development area, along with 100 employees, and plans to make the move by 2010. Report
> A Consumer Reports survey of 1,466 Americans who took sleeping pills found that many have problems, including needing to take them more than recommended, side effects (including daytime drowsiness), reduced effectiveness and dependency. Report
> Acadia Pharmaceuticals is slashing its workforce and put more dollars toward some drug candidates, reducing the number of employees to just 65 in a restructuring effort. Report
> Roche and Genentech are still at the bargaining table, and while a deal remains likely, it looks like Genentech has increased its bargaining power, again. Report
> It looks like CRO stock is a good investment risk and is likely to stay so, according to the Motley Fool--in part because they make money regardless of whether the drugs they develop make the grade. Report
> Enzon Pharmaceuticals reported a net loss of reported $1.7 million in Q2, which is about $300,000 less than it reported last year at the same time and less than some analysts predicted. Report
> Several drug companies saw their share prices climb yesterday, including Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis. Report
> Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to make five annual payments of at least $4.3 million to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in exchange for the rights to use its Velocigene technology. Report
> Clinical Data is buyout out the privately held Adenosine Therapeutics for $11 million, promissory notes totaling $25.2 million and up to $30 million in milestones. Report
> In its second big round of cuts in three months, Pharmacopeia says it is axing 40 percent of its staffers. Report
> Struggling from the withdrawal of a key development partner and last week's mid-stage failure of an intranasal obesity therapy, Bothwell, WA-based MDRNA announced today that it will cut 30 percent of its workforce. Report
> Two drugs known as Aicar and GW1516 have a dramatic ability to enhance the strength and fitness of animals, according to researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Report
> A research team from Columbia and Harvard was able to reprogram stem cells taken from the skin of elderly patients into cells responsible for triggering amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Report
> Seven years and more than $50 billion after 9/11, biosecurity experts say the U.S. still has made only marginal progress developing the security measures and new therapeutics needed to protect the U.S. from the next bioterror threat. Report
And Finally... The house of UC Santa Cruz molecular biologist David Feldheim was firebombed, forcing his family to flee the burning building through a window in what police officials say was one of two attacks directed against biomedical researchers. Report