| Cord Blood America Announces Early Start to Groundbreaking 'Afford-A-Cord' Program (PR Newswire) Cord Blood America, Inc. , announced today that its groundbreaking "Afford-A-Cord" program, which reduces the initial cost of storing umbilical cord blood stem cells from $2075 to $495 plus medical courier service, will be launched on June 14, 2010 rather than July 1, 2010, as previously announced. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Vote Spares Doctors From Medicare Congress approved on Thursday a bill that averts for six months a planned reduction in fees paid to doctors who treat Medicare patients. online.wsj.com |
Successful IPOs in Genomics Could Ignite Biotech Stocks Rod Raynovich submits:The IPO market is setting up for continued investor interest in the biotech sector. Two high profile genomics companies, Complete Genomics (GNOM) and Pacific Biosciences (PACB), have filed S-1 Registration Statements with plans to go public in the fourth quarter around the time when market seasonality becomes more bullish. Biotech has been a strong sector in a choppy 2010 market with the NYSE Arca Biotech Index up 15.3% YTD. Selected molecular diagnostics stocks have fared well YTD with GenProbe (GPRO) up 12%, Illumina (ILMN) up 50%, and Sequenom (SQNM) up 44%. Recent data from a Piper Jaffray report in April quantifies the molecular diagnostic market at $4.1B and growing at 12%. Piper sees long term growth coming from genetic testing with pharmacogenomic testing for cancer and sequencing for genetic conditions. Piper believes that lower sequencing costs down below $5000 will enable the convergence into molecular diagnostics.Complete Genomics filed on 7/30 for an $86M IPO with UBS and Jeffries and Co. as underwriters. The Company was founded in 2005, has 159 employees, and has a proprietary DNA sequencing platform with integrated software and bioinformatics providing services for genomic based research (see Raygent profile). Applications for the complete genome sequencing services are cancer research, Mendelian Disease research, Rare Variant Disease research, and clinical trial optimization. The Company has raised $95.4M since inception through six VCs and 5% shareholders: Orbimed Advisors, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Prospect Venture Partners III, OVP Venture Partners, Enterprise Partners and Highland Capital Management. The Company has 30 past and current customers for its services including the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Accumulated deficit since inception was $89.6M and revenue for 2010 was $336k with a loss of $14.3M as of 3/31/10. Cash position was $2.4M.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
GSK's Diabetes Drug Continues to Face Scrutiny: Biotech's Latest Mishaps The Burrill Report submits: GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) diabetes drug Avandia is once again under regulatory scrutiny—this time it’s in Europe where the European Medicines Agency met to discuss whether Avandia should continue to be marketed. The agency in a press statement said that no final decision has been made about the drug. It said it has further questions for GSK before deciding whether and what action needs to be taken. A final decision is expected by September 23. The meeting took place as a controversy erupted in the United Kingdom over a recommendation made at the end of July by the UK Commission on Human Medicines, according to TheHeart.Org. The commission unanimously voted that Avandia should be withdrawn. Though it informed the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the agency responsible for licensing drugs in the United Kingdom, its decision was not made public. Instead the agency sent letters to doctors restating safety information about the drug and suggesting they consider alternatives. Because the drug was approved by the European Medicines Agency, only it can revoke the license for the drug. Roche (RHHBY.PK) said it halted dosing of patients in a late-stage trial of its experimental diabetes drug taspoglutide because side effects including nausea and vomiting resulted in many participants in the study to drop out of it, Bloomberg reported. The company is trying to determine what caused the side effects and see if it can reformulate the medication to reduce the risk, a spokeswoman told Bloomberg. Because a large number of patients dropped out of the study, the company said it would be difficult to determine whether the drug is effective.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Covance to Present at the Piper Jaffray 22nd Annual Health Care Conference [PR Newswire] - Covance Inc. today announced that it will present at the Piper Jaffray 22nd Annual Health Care Conference on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. ET. Â Investors may access a live webcast of the presentation at www.covance.com. Â In order to register and download any necessary software, please log on 10 minutes early. us.rd.yahoo.com |