Time and money are driving the world’s pharmaceutical companies east for their clinical trials. With its huge population, new helpful regulations and growth outstripping China, India plans to become the world leader in the clinical research business by the end of the decade.

At any given time over 1.4 million people worldwide are suffering from infections they got from their health-provider, according to the World Health Organization. Pelias AG, a newly created affiliate of Austrian biotech company Intercell AG, is hoping to raise €15 million to €20 million to make a dent in those numbers.

News Editor Thomas Lau spoke to Florian Schönharting, a partner at the Nordic Biotech, a fund that has invested in Denmark’s Gastrotech BipPharma - a biotechnology company that recently merged with US biotech firm DOR BioPharma. Nordic Biotech, a specialised biotech venture capital fund focusing primarily on Nordic countries and the EU, has invested in Gastrotech since its inception in March 2003.

The countries of Scandinavia and the Baltic have got together to maximise the value of intellectual property, the feedstock of the knowledge economy.

Forget stem cells, pharmacogenomics and the next big cure - Michael Kenward gazes into his prophecy book to see what the physical sciences have in store for us this year. Or maybe not.

European exchanges are opening back up for riskier ventures, and experts expect the trend to continue. But trade-sales should still dominate, says Mary Lisbeth D'Amico.

Lab-supply companies are normally in the business of selling things to scientists, rather than buying. But the new CEO of Sigma-Aldrich, one of the world's largest lab-supply firms, is shopping for new ideas, new partners - and new companies to invest in.