Nuala Moran

Three new centres for systems biology are to be launched with funding of £27 million from the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

So far Italy has barely registered on the roster of biotech nations. Now that is set to change as the first biotechnology champions emerge and the country goes all out to attract inward investment.

Philips has announced the first fruit of its deal with the venture capital firm New Venture Partners to spin out companies based on research carried out in Philips’ corporate research laboratories.

Hailed as one of the most important recent discoveries in biology, RNA interference has seen patent applications rise 3,000 per cent between 2000 and 2003.

Things have changed in intellectual property, the biotech industry's big annual get-together in the US has been hearing from India, Malaysia and others.

The European biotechnology sector is back on track, according to Ernst & Young's 20th annual survey of biotechnology.

The conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the specifics of the TeGenero trial in which six healthy volunteers ended up in intensive care has repercussions for the wider biotech industry.

Chroma Therapeutics Ltd raised £30 million in a third private round, giving the chromatin specialist funding for the next three years and enabling it to advance the lead programme through Phase II clinical studies and bring two further products into the clinic.

After finding nothing wrong with the specifics of the preclinical data, the product, or how the trial was conducted, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has ordered an investigation to changes in clinical trials procedures.

A small UK charity has turned entrepreneur to develop a low cost, mass manufactured, modern device to pump the blood of people whose heart muscle is failing.