Stories by: Staff Writers

Adelaide biotech Bionomics has presented the results of preclinical and clinical data for its anti-anxiety compound BNC210, demonstrating that the drug is more effective in treating stressed rats than the current market leader valium (Diazapem).

A report by analyst group Datamonitor has identified China and India’s pharmaceutical industries as the ones to watch following a flurry of M&A activity over the last three years.

Australia’s biggest healthcare provider Ramsay Healthcare this week reported a 21.9 percent jump in full-year net profit to $178.5 million.

Testosterone booster Acrux this week stormed into the black for the first time, announcing a net profit of $46.6 million after earlier in the year signing one of the biggest ever multinational licensing deals for an Australian biotech.

It took nearly two decades to go from the release of the first semi-automated genome sequencer in the mid-1980s to the launch of Roche's flagship 454 FLX next generation sequencer in 2005. The 454 is now one of three major players in the next gen market whose impact on the world of genomics cannot be underestimated. Just five years later we are poised to embrace another new wave of sequencing technology.

Regenerative medicine specialists Mesoblast announced this week that it has convened an extraordinary general meeting with shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company’s US partner Angioblast Systems.

Melbourne biotech Cellestis this week announced a full year net profit of $10.22 million, following strong growth in all of the company’s major markets.

Professor Philip Hogg, Director of the new Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of NSW, has received the prestigious 2010 Industry & Investment NSW Eureka Prize for Medical Research Translation.

CSL, Australia’s biggest biotech and the world’s second largest producer of plasma blood products, today reported an eight percent dip in full year net profit to $1.05 billion, as a rising Australian dollar dented overseas revenues.

This year’s prestigious GlaxoSmithKline Australia Award for Research has gone to Monash University’s Professor Charles Mackay for his work on immunology and inflammation, particularly the discovery of GPR43 as a major regulator of innate and inflammatory response.