This Week’s Biotech Highlights

Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame, and this week there was plenty of recognition to go around — both in the biotech community and in the legal community.

The FDA, famous for restrictive rules on communications, is having a hard time adjusting to current internet trends, leading to some controversial decisions about Google search ads. Trying to do better, FDA held a two-day hearing about the use of the internet and social media for online drug marketing so it can calibrate its decisions for a new era. Rule-making will follow at the old era pace, though.

Simon Fodden and Slaw, already famous, got further exposure in an article in Lexpert Magazine that explored the use of social media by law firms and lawyers. Yours truly was also cited on using social networking to facilitate real-life connections.

Also achieving fame were the winners of the CIHR’s Canadian Health Research Awards and the winners of the Prix Galien Canada. Awardees ran the gamut from basic to applied research and from molecular to population-based approaches. Congrats!

Fame is great, but funding is better. The Ontario Genomics Institute’s Pre-commercialization Business Development Fund, which makes investments to fund proof-of-principle programs, is calling for applications for 2010.

Finally, for those hoping for fame or other great things from their offspring, I tweeted @crossborderbio about a cool post by my wife (and editor of the Cross-Border Biotech Blog) about evolutionary advantages for sensitive kids.