This Week’s Biotech Highlights

The world of biotech was all shook up this week:

In venture capital, GrowthWorks was stepping on Covington’s Blue Suede Shoes by soliciting votes against Convington’s planned acquisition of the VenGrowth funds, saying it wants time to make its own offer. The CPPIB handed a Big Hunk O’ Love to NorthLeaf Capital, turning over management of its $438 million portfolio of venture capital investments including Celtic, Edgestone, Lumira/MDS, Skypoint and Ventures West.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mick Bhatia’s group at the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University found a way to make human skin cells sing “Any Way You Want Me,” turning directly into blood cells without a pluripotent cell step in between.

The FDA, always a Hard Headed Woman when it comes to new regulatory regimes, held two days of hearings on biosmilars, aiming to answer some key questions about bringing this important class of pharmaceuticals to market.

Closer to (my) home, Ogilvy “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” Renault and Norton Rose are merging, bringing Ogilvy’s domestic life sciences expertise to a new global “headlight” for Norton Rose. So, stay tuned for biotech news with a continued international focus, and a new design, at The Cross-Border Biotech Blog and @crossborderbio on Twitter.