Helsinn Holding SA, a privately-owned pharmaceutical company, is to establish a centre of excellence in R&D of oral solid dosage at its existing site in Dublin.

The precarious position of the UK’s life sciences sector is underlined by fundraising failures among 295 of its members.

A national centre for sequencing plant, animal and microbial genomes is to be set up by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Biotech organisations in the UK have expressed anger at a tripling of the license fees charged by the Human Tissue Authority, the UK's regulator.

Three of the UK’s largest learned societies in biological and environmental sciences have signed an agreement which is a significant step towards integration.