Roundup: PG&E installs smart meters, Stewart cows Cramer, the market seesaws and more
MySpace Events get an upgrade — The network’s new event invite system takes more advantage of users’ social circles. TechCrunch has more.
PG&E smart meters get the green light — The utility will spend $467 million in taxpayer money to install the meters in California homes. The San… Continue Reading
Plexxikon teams up with Roche, eyes $335M to fight kidney disease
Pharmaceutical company Plexxikon has joined forces with health care giant Roche for at least $60 million to develop a treatment for polycystic kidney disease, commonly called PKD. Under the terms of the deal, Roche will have full global rights to commercialize and market the compound,… Continue Reading
Roundup: Biogenerics bill in limbo, clashing data on health IT benefits, the RNAi boom, and more
House-Senate confrontation set over biogenerics – Late last month, a key group of senators reached agreement on legislative provisions that would authorize copycat versions of biotech drugs, which are typically complex proteins manufactured by genetically engineered cells (see details here and here). These provisions would finally… Continue Reading
Roche acquires gene-chip maker NimbleGen for $273M
Pharmaceutical and diagnostic giant Roche agreed to buy Madison, Wis.-based NimbleGen Systems, a developer of chips that analyze gene activity and variation, for $272.5 million. (The release is here.) NimbleGen had hoped to raise as much as $75 million in an IPO, but faced with… Continue Reading
Roundup: Genetic links to breast cancer, Avandia under attack, death and the drug official, and more
More genetic links for breast cancer – Whole-genome association studies that tease out links between minute genetic variations and the likelihood of disease are definitely building momentum. Over the last several days, researchers reported six new variations that increase the risk of breast cancer for women… Continue Reading
Inflammation drug maker Conatus Pharma completes $27.5M round
Conatus Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego developer of drugs for inflammation and liver disease, closed a $22 million private placement that brings its first round of funding to $27.5 million. Investors included Aberdare Ventures, Advent Venture Partners, Bay City Capital, and Gilde Healthcare Partners.
Conatus was founded… Continue Reading
Roche acquires antibody research co., THP, for $56.5M
Roche has acquired Therapeutic Human Polyclonals, a private company based in Germany and Mountain View, Ca. that focuses on antibody research, for $56.5 million.
See the statement here.
Roche plans to integrate THP into the Roche Pharma Center of Excellence for Protein Research in Penzberg, Germany.