This Week’s Biotech Highlights

Having taken Labour Day off, I present a double edition of biotech highlights:

Double Money:

• Genome BC and Genome Canada put $3.4 million into a grape and wine genomics project that will try to bring molecular techniques to bear on winemaking. And…
• The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) is providing $50 million to BDC for direct investments in “early-stage firms in Southern Ontario” and for investments in VC funds “focused on Ontario-based opportunities.”

Double Caution:

• An article in the New York Times called direct-to-consumer genetic testing “fraught with potential dangers.” And…
• The FDA revised its warning letters webpage to make the most recent warning letters easier to find.

Double Endings:

• BioMS had a change of luck and terminated its development agreement with Eli Lilly . And…
• MDS is selling its Analytical Technologies Business and plans to sell its Pharma Services Business next.

And to end on a good note… Double Stimulus:

• Despite generally dismal U.S. job numbers, extra funding for the NIH helped the health care and education sectors add about 52,000 jobs in August. And…
• A study by a group at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health aims to stimulate more Canadian collaborations with developing country partners.

To find out more, check out our “double your knowledge or your money back” guarantee at The Cross-Border Biotech Blog.