• LiquidGrids Scans Social Media for Pharma Keywords

    Xconomy | LiquidGrids re-launched its business and overhauled its technology at the end of March to carry out data mining on social media sites for pharma companies. The goal is to identify trends and help customers take advantage of marketing opportunities in social media.

    Apr 9, 2012

  • Academic Research Largely Not Reproducible

    The Hook | A new Nature commentary finds that 9 of 10 pre-clinical cancer research studies cannot be replicated. Amgen researchers tried to confirm the findings of published academic research, and could only do so in 6 of the 53 papers they considered.

    Apr 8, 2012

  • Third-Party Firm Sides With Illumina

    Barron's | Shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services has spoken up for Illumina in the Illumina-Roche standoff.

    Apr 8, 2012

  • Takeda Joins Structural Genomics Consortium

    News Brief | Takeda Pharmaceutical has joined the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a public-private partnership that supports the discovery of new medicines through open access research. Takeda's contribution raises the SGC's funds to $50 million.

    Apr 6, 2012

  • April Free Trials and Downloads

    Bio-IT World | Free trials & downloads featuring NGS plugins, aligner software, tox screening, ELNs, data visualization, digital signatures, and more. 

    Apr 5, 2012

  • GE Buys Contract Sequencing Company

    WSJ Health Blog | GE is increasing its investment in personalized medicine with the acquisition of SeqWright, a contract sequencing company in Houston. 

    Apr 4, 2012

  • Genomic Insight into Adaptations

    HHMI | Researchers from the Broad Institute have sequenced the genome of the three-spine stickleback, a small migratory fish, and have caught a glimpse of gene adaptations in action. Their findings are published today in Nature.

    Apr 4, 2012

  • Radiant Sage Boosts Pfizer’s Imaging Pipeline

    Bio-IT World | It has taken more than a decade, but the ideas of Venkatesan Thangaraj to create a pharma pipeline for image management are maturing so quickly that he sees the potential of developing an industry standard that enables all trial sponsors and vendors to have a single customizable tool for handling clinical imaging data. 

    Apr 3, 2012

  • AACR Genomics Highlights

    Nature News | The American Association for Cancer Research meeting wraps up today, and has covered the gamut of topics from deep digital sequencing to fixing clinical trials to genomics-based cancer tests and predictions.

    Apr 4, 2012

  • Knome Joins Illumina Genome Network, Adds Managerial Depth

    Bio-IT World | Knome, the human genome interpretation company, made a series of announcements today, including its selection as a partner in the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) and a number of managerial appointments.  

    Apr 3, 2012

  • The Orphan Drug Conundrum

    Bio-IT World | The Skeptical Outsider | It's not a crisis. Yet. Bigger health care issues loom. Right now. There are still fortunes to be made. While it lasts. But one could hardly ask for a more interesting case study on the collision of medicine, economics, and democracy than the explosive growth of so-called orphan drugs. These are drugs designed to extract extraordinary amounts of other people's money serving the needs of tiny, desperate patient populations. 

    Apr 2, 2012

  • Twin Study Finds Little Prediction Power in Genomics

    New York Times | A study published yesterday online in Science Translational Medicine found that knowing a person's DNA doesn't seem to help predict a person's medical future. 

    Apr 3, 2012

  • RainDance Releases Cancer Panel Worldwide

    Mass High Tech | RainDance Technologies has announced worldwide release of its cancer mutation screening panel, which screens 13,000 cancer hotspots across 54 genes.

    Apr 3, 2012

  • The Money Question: Cost-Effectiveness in Drug Discovery

    Xconomy | Cost-effectiveness in biotech and drug discovery can no longer be a secondary consideration, but the cost of drugs to patients is still not frequently discussed. 

    Apr 3, 2012

  • Oracle Acquires ClearTrials Clinical Trials Software

    PC World | Oracle acquired ClearTrial late last week for an undisclosed amount in a deal expected to close in the first half of the year. Oracle hopes to combine ClearTrial's cloud-based clinical trials software offerings with its existing portfolio including tools.

    Apr 2, 2012

  • DIY Clinical Trials

    WSJ Blog | DIY science is growing in popularity, especially as sequencing costs fall and genomics becomes more accessible. So it's not surprising that the DIY clinical trial is gaining ground as well. An investment advisor in Silicon Valley launched her own clinical trial on the type of vitamin B she, and others with her genotype, should take.

    Apr 2, 2012

  • Price Wars for Cancer Drugs

    Reuters | Part of the drug discovery challenge is price and the "pricing crisis" is reaching new heights in terms of cancer medicines. Many patients don't have access to drugs that could help because of price limitations. 

    Apr 2, 2012

  • Courtagen Releases Genetic Tests for Mitochondrial Disease

    Mass High Tech | Courtagen, a private genomics and proteomics company based in Woburn, Mass., has announced its first genetic test to diagnose mitochondiral disease. The company says it plans to expand test options later this year and ultimately offer a combination of multiplex proteomic and next-generation sequencing genomic assays using Illumina’s MiSeq and HiSeq platforms.

    Mar 30, 2012

  • Roche Again Raises Illumina Bid

    New York Times | Roche raised its bid for Illumina yesterday, offering $51 per share, valuing the company at more than $6 billion. 

    Mar 29, 2012

  • Paul Allen Pledges Another $300m to Institute for Brain Science

    Seattle Times | Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences, has committed an additional $300 million toward the Institute's 10-year plan.

    Mar 29, 2012