The Burrill Weekly Brief | August 30, 2010
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Legislators Weigh Goals of Personalized Medicine Bill
Podcast
When Barack Obama was a junior senator from Illinois he introduced legislation designed to foster the development of personalized medicine. New versions of that bill have followed, but never managed to get out of committee. The latest one, introduced in May, now faces the added dynamic of an emerging controvery over direct-to-consumer genetic tests. We spoke to Dan Vorhaus, editor Genomics Law Report and an attorney with Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson about the legislative efforts, what this latest version of the bill seeks to accomplish, and whether there’s a future for direct-to-consumer genetic tests. Read More Here
By The Numbers
Roche Dominates the Deal Flow
The Swiss biopharma announces a new acquisition and a drug discovery partnership.
Roche was busy striking deals in the last days of summer, a time when much of Europe goes on holiday. The Swiss biopharma’s Ventana Medical Systems is acquiring California-based diagnostics startup BioImagene for $100 million. Read More Here
Biotech Industry Market Cap: $324.30 billion (down 1.77 percent for the week ending 8/27/10)
Performance of Select Blue Chip Biotechs |
| COMPANY |
MARKET CAP
($B) |
CHANGE IN
SHARE PRICE (%) |
| Amgen |
$52.00 |
3.65% |
| Gilead |
$27.28 |
-0.33% |
| Celgene |
$23.85 |
-3.82% |
| Biogen |
$13.21 |
-1.42% |
| Genzyme |
$17.23 |
1.06%
|
Biotech slips as capital markets weaken
Biotech holds firm in wild week on capital markets
It was a wild week on the capital markets as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 10,000 on Thursday only to rebound on Friday. Investors surprisingly were not fazed by a revenue warning from technology bellwether Intel and a downbeat economic assessment by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The economy grew at a much slower pace this spring than previously estimated, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, mostly due to the largest surge in imports in 26 years and a slowdown in companies' restocking of goods. The nation's GDP grew at a 1.6 percent annual rate in the April-to-June period down from an initial estimate of 2.4 percent last month and much slower than the first quarter's 3.7 percent pace.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week down 0.61 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 1.2 percent. The Burrill Biotech Select Index only dropped 0.4 percent for the week, bolstered by a strong performance from Amgen with shares up 3.6 percent. Celgene shares fell 3.3 percent on news that the company could face a patent challenge to its lead cancer drug Revlimid.
The Burrill Genomics Index closed the week up almost 6 percent thanks to an 8.3 percent pop in the shares of Human Genome Sciences on news that its lupus drug will get a priority review from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, potentially clearing the way for its approval by mid-December. If approved, Benlysta would be the first new drug in more than 50 years for systemic lupus.
| INDEX |
12/31/08 |
12/31/09 |
08/20/10 |
08/27/10 |
% CHANGE (WEEK) |
% CHANGE (YEAR) |
| Burrill Select |
300.33 |
312.47 |
313.51 |
312.26 |
-0.40% |
-0.07% |
| Burrill Large Cap |
379.7 |
461.85 |
463.73 |
460.38 |
-0.72% |
-0.32% |
| Burrill Mid-Cap |
139.39 |
166.01 |
163.24 |
161.28 |
-1.20% |
-2.85% |
| Burrill Small Cap |
78.35 |
88.12 |
77.24 |
76.59 |
-0.84% |
-13.08% |
| Burrill Genomics |
59.69 |
159.87 |
150.82 |
159.42 |
5.70% |
-0.28% |
| Burrill BioGreenTech |
- |
100.00 |
119.24 |
119.61 |
0.31% |
19.61% |
| Burrill Diagnostics |
138.3 |
147.96 |
125.74 |
124.41 |
-1.06% |
-15.92% |
| Burrill Personalized Medicine |
79.63 |
91.71 |
84.26 |
83.11 |
-1.36% |
-9.38% |
| Canadian Biotech |
32.52 |
40.35 |
47.89 |
47.82 |
-0.15% |
18.51% |
| NASDAQ |
1577.03 |
2269.15 |
2179.76 |
2153.63 |
-1.20% |
-5.09% |
| DJIA |
8776.39 |
10428.05 |
10213.62 |
10150.95 |
-0.61% |
-2.66% |
| Amex Biotech |
647.15 |
941.92 |
1072.24 |
1072.49 |
0.02% |
13.86% |
| Amex Pharmaceutical |
272.84 |
309.21 |
285.77 |
286.87 |
0.38% |
-7.22% |
Judge Blocks Funding for Stem Cell Research
Court overturns Obama Administration guidelines.
A U.S. district court judge has blocked federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, overturning guidelines crafted by the Obama administration to fund such work. The injunction will have a significant negative impact on the field, says Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco. Read More Here
A Big Bet on Biofuels
Shell and Cosan joint venture moves closer to reality.
A $12-billion joint venture between Shell International Petroleum and Brazilian ethanol producer Cosan moved closer to reality as the two companies signed binding agreements on a deal first proposed in February. If completed, the deal will create the third largest ethanol producer in the world with 4,500 retail stations and annual production of 440 million gallons. Read More Here
Remarkable Result in Melanoma Drug Trial
Study drug shrinks tumors in 81 percent of melanoma patients.
Plexxikon said its experimental drug, the subject of a collaboration with Roche, was able to shrink melanoma tumors in 81 percent of patients in an early-stage trial. The positive results were short-lived. Tumors grew again in all but two of the trial patients following the treatment. But researchers have hailed the result as a breakthrough in treating the notoriously tough-to-treat cancer. Read More Here
Actos and Avandia pose similar risks
New study contrasts with earlier findings on top diabetes drugs.
People taking Takeda's Actos or Glaxo's Avandia for diabetes face equal heart risks according to a new study that contradicts earlier reports that suggested Actos was safer. Read More Here
Roche Bets Big on Ailero
Partners see promise in peptides for tackling tough diseases.
Roche is investing $25 million to back a drug-delivery technology developed by Aileron Therapeutics, a small company that stands to earn $1.1 billion in milestone payments plus royalties should its technology help Roche develop successful new medicines. Read More Here
Retrovirus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Study could open new avenues of treating a debilitating disease.
A new study has found gene sequences of a family of retroviruses in blood samples collected from patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and some healthy blood donors. The study replicates similar research published last year in the journal Science that also linked these newly discovered retroviruses to chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that afflicts as many as 4 million people in the United States. Read More Here
Costs of Scientific Misconduct
Case study sheds light on underappreciated consequences of research misconduct.
Scientific research is critically important to advancing knowledge and improving life. The assumption is that it will be conducted ethically, and results of experiments will not be fabricated to fit a hypothesis. Nevertheless, that’s not always the case. Read More Here
Abuse Concerns Lead FDA Committee to Reject Expanded Use of Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ Drug
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
A joint advisory committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted against the approval of Jazz Pharmaceuticals drug Xyreme for fibromyalgia because of concerns that the risks exceed the benefits. The drug, sodium oxybate, is a central nervous system depressant. It is also known as gamma-hydroxybutyrate or GHB, widely referred to as ‘the date rape drug.” Read More Here
Researchers Find Key Proteins for Drought Tolerance
Study could aid in the development of crops capable of thriving in a hotter and dryer world.
Researchers have identified the set of proteins that help plants withstand water stress and survive drought. Their findings could help underpin the development of new crop plant strains capable of thriving under hot and dry conditions, and address one of the biggest challenges for agricultural biotechnology in light of the pressing need to expand and intensify agricultural production on marginal lands worldwide, especially in the context of global climate change. Read More Here

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