Popping a pill could fix gene defect
Simply popping a pill might be enough to overcome the type of genetic defect responsible for many cases of cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and haemophilia. An experimental drug called PTC124 produces a working protein even though the gene remains defective.

Monsanto Overhauling Businesses
Monsanto, the world’s leading agricultural biotechnology company, says it is abandoning efforts to produce pharmaceuticals in genetically engineered crops to focus on businesses that could pay off sooner.

Cloning Remains a Meaty Issue
The Food and Drug Administration soon will decide whether the meat in your Philly cheese steak or your barbecue spareribs could come from a cloned animal.
Because of safety concerns, the FDA has barred the handful of companies that clone farm animals from selling them for meat. But since early this year, those companies have been submitting data — generated by independent research firms — to the FDA.

Sabotage of biotech firms grows
A growing militant movement opposed to genetic engineering in agriculture and medicine is turning to violent and criminal sabotage — from the bombing of a Bay area biotech company to the destruction of genetically modified crops.
As a result, targeted companies aren’t just taking extra security precautions but also often altering business strategies. The violence, which the FBI says suddenly became more serious this year, stems in part from frustration that peaceful protests have failed to slow the pace of biotech’s progress.

High hopes for biotech companies / IPOs getting ready to go as startups woo VC investors
Biotechnology leaders are cautiously celebrating the end of a two- year financial slump this autumn as more than a dozen companies line up to go public and the latest class of young startups shows its stuff to potential venture capital partners at a conference in San Francisco today and Thursday.

Reducing Multi-Cycle Reviews Is FDA Priority
FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan today described key steps the agency is taking to shorten drug approval times, in his keynote speech at IIR�s Phases conference in Washington, D.C.

Reaping and Sewing From Corn
The National Renewable Energy Lab and chemical company DuPont have teamed to design a versatile bio-refinery that turns the entire corn plant into a source for materials and a petroleum alternate.

Enigmatic ImClone
Rarely has a company reeling from corporate malfeasance been on the receiving end of so much good news. But such is the case with ImClone Systems, as investors struggle for clues on the long-term direction of this enigma.

IPO market abuzz with biotech offerings
The buzz is biotech — at least as far as initial public offerings are concerned in the fourth quarter.

IPO Market Abuzz with Biotech Offerings
“We can expect to see the first IPO take flight in mid-October and we are sticking with our prediction … of at least a dozen IPOs getting done before the end of the year.”