This Week’s Biotech Highlights

Maybe it’s because of the Spring weather, but love was in the air this week. Even regulators were in sync.

The week started off with a study showing that married couples have more immunological diversity than random pairs, suggesting that opposites really do attract.

The Canadian government showed some love for tech companies this week too, with BDC committing $75 million to a new VC fund: the Tandem Expansion Fund, headed up by Charles Sirois and Brent Belzberg.

A love triangle with India’s Shantha Biotech at the centre turned to a more traditional M&A romance this week when Sanofi-Aventis dropped out, leaving GSK as the only bidder for Shantha’s generic biologics, novel antibodies, proteins and vaccines for oncology and infectious diseases.

GSK has been a player lately, having spun out it’s HIV assets into a joint venture with Pfizer in a deal that provides an interesting model for pharmas’ future research and development.

Not all was rosy, though: JLL’s relentless pursuit of Patheon has sent Patheon to court for the corporate equivalent of a restraining order. If someone gets their heart broken, though, and needs a transplant then GenomeBC and the PROOF Centre of Excellence are working on better ways to monitor rejection.

And me? I love the idea of using flow-though shares to stimulate investment and attact expertise to Canada’s biotech and cleantech sectors.

Come for the deal review, stay for the romance: stay tuned for next week at the Cross-Border Biotech Blog.