Drug discovery

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.

Intercell, an Austrian biotechnology company, has received a $1 million milestone payment from Merck for progress in the development of a bacterial vaccine candidate.

A spin-out from Sheffield that uses stem cells to help with conventional drug discovery is looking for investment to continue pre-clinical research on therapeutic applications and business development activities.