Read our editorials covering trends and views in biotechnology. Please click on a titel to reach the corresponding full text article!

Identifying High-Quality Patent Information	07-Jun-04
Where is the information? by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information services The major challenge for most IP workers is to know where and how to retrieve up-to-date, high-quality patent as well as patent-related information. [...] click on titel to read more
Is Information protected as 'a product made by a patented process'?	05-Apr-04
Considerations on the value of patented screening methods and diagnostic assays in biotechnology by Dr. Alexander Dick, patent attorney, KLEINER Rechtsanwälte [...] click on titel to read more
Gene Therapy: From Concept to Reality	09-Sep-03
by Dr. Faiz Kermani, Chiltern International As it aims to correct the underlying genetic defects in human disease rather than just focusing on symptoms, gene therapy offers the potential for actual cures. Following the completion of the draft of the human genome, there was considerable media attention on gene therapy, but various safety concerns and technical problems have shown that many hurdles remain. [...] click on titel to read more
Biotechnology and the Revitalisation of Drug Development	21-Jul-03
by Dr. Faiz Kermani & Pietro Bonacossa, Chiltern International The development of novel medicines is critical if diseases and disorders are to be effectively treated. Despite the considerable medical advances that have occurred over the last few decades, there still remain major areas of unmet need. As a result, many have looked to biotechnology to provide continuing innovation in the field of new drug development. [...] click on titel to read more
Teachers get a taste of their own medicine	07-Jul-03
by Ellen Peerenboom, European Molecular Biology Organization 123 teachers from 20 countries met recently in Heidelberg to brush up their knowledge of modern biology at the European Molecular Biology Organization's (EMBO) second international teachers' workshop. The participants showed great enthusiasm for the event, which covered the theoretical and practical aspects of science teaching. The programme offered talks by scientists, an exhibition of the latest teaching aids and real experiments that the teachers could try out for themselves. The highlight of the theoretical part was undoubtedly the lecture given by Nobel laureate, Erwin Neher, while the hands-on experiments offered during the eight practical sessions were highly appreciated. [...] click on titel to read more
Risk and Reward in R&D	19-Mai-03
by Dr. Faiz Kermani & Pietro Bonacossa, Chiltern International Investing in R&D requires long-term planning and the willingness to take risks. Only about 15% of new drugs entering development subsequently reach the market, and the overall expense can be in the order of US$800 million 1,2. [...] click on titel to read more
Malaria: The Neglected Disease	02-Mai-03
by Faiz Kermani, PhD, Chiltern International, UK The world's best known parasitic disease One of the biggest challenges for governments and industry in the future is to decrease the health disparities between poor and affluent populations and to improve drug access across the world. [...] click on titel to read more
Promoting Innovation in New Drug Development	18-Mar-03
by Dr. Faiz Kermani & Pietro Bonacossa, Chiltern International Innovation or Procrastination? Given that the pharmaceutical industry invests billions of dollars in each year in R&D, its ability to innovate is a key measure of its productivity. In recent years, some of the major companies in the industry have received some criticism by those who believe that they lack new ideas and methodologies. They assert that the industry is producing too many new drugs that are similar to each other and that offer little clinical advantages over those who are already on the global market. [...] click on titel to read more
"Promoting Scientific Excellence in Europe", Interview with Gottfried Schatz	28-Feb-03
Prof. Dr. Gottfried Schatz, President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council (interviewed by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants) Dr. Gottfried Schatz offensively criticizes that the European systems of university education and research funding hinder the development of scientific excellence. In his view, money for research - by working after the principle of discriminate all-round distribution - is too broadly scattered instead of promoting purposefully. Permanent academic positions and the rigid hierarchy structures at European universities are also a thorn in his flesh. Dr. Schatz is an enthusiastic advocate for the introduction of a tenure track system at European universities, and expects it to generate higher flexibility in science and education as well as to give highly qualified scientists clearer future prospects and better chances. [...] click on titel to read more
"Target and Control" - A new paradigm in cancer therapy	07-Feb-03
by Prof. Olaf G. Wilhelm, MD, founder and CEO of Wilex AG, Munich/Germany Cancer therapy is currently moving from a "seek and destroy" to a "target and control" paradigm. This was stated by one of the world's leading experts in cancer medicine, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, at the Annual ASCO Meeting in May 2002. The bottom line of this statement is: Conventional chemotherapies and radiation are more and more complemented by novel non-cytotoxic treatment regimens against cancer, which are tailored to the tumor biology of cancer patients and, therefore, are expected to provide effective, safe and better tolerated treatment. [...] click on titel to read more
Biology-education Moves Online	23-Jan-03
by Andreas Bauer, Prof. Dr. D. Graf, University of Dortmund, Biology and didactics of biology The development of electronic media has taken a rather rapid course. All the digital information systems (document-knowledgement systems) we are using today are based on the same idea, Bush's concept of a hypertext system in 1945. The further development of all types of computer-based media soon separated from the mass media, which merely inform. [...] click on titel to read more
Let's talk about Sex	09-Dez-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Journalists are mediators. And they are translators. Take me as an example. It is my job as a scientific journalist to translate scientific contents to the public so that people can understand what things like "cloning" and "genetic engineering" are. And, well, I am trying my best and it truly is an advantage for me to be an educated molecular biologist. I do understand scientific subjects as well as the technical terminology of the biosciences. [...] click on titel to read more
Danube Waves	28-Nov-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants A few weeks ago I gave you an overview of the current situation of the French biotech market. Today I would like to introduce another young biotechnology region to you: Austria, the gate to the Eastern Europe. [...] click on titel to read more
Everybody's darling - mass spectrometry	11-Nov-02
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience The Nobel prize in Chemistry 2002 has recently been awarded for the development of methods for the identification and structural analysis of biological macromolecules. It is being shared between scientists in two important fields: mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). [...] click on titel to read more
A new market is born	22-Okt-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Well, for sure the location right next to neighbouring European states was quite well selected. But in my view that alone does not explain the significant number of international industry representatives at the French Biotech business meeting 6th European Biotech Crossroads in Lille, Northern France, last week. [...] click on titel to read more
Orphan Drugs Find a Home	12-Okt-02
by Faiz Kermani, PhD, Chiltern International, UK An area of neglect Before steps were taken to implement Orphan drug legislation, patients suffering from rare diseases represented a great area of unmet medical need. Patients often had to wait years to gain access to drugs that had been approved in other parts of the world and found that little information was available to help them cope with their illness. [...] click on titel to read more
Missing Chances	24-Sep-02
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience More than one million people die on malaria every year. Overall more people are infected than the European Community counts inhabitants: 400 million. Only about 10 drugs are available to treat this tremendous danger for human life. Unfortunately more and more resistancies of the malaria pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum are observed. [...] click on titel to read more
Are We in Line for more Mega-Mergers?	09-Sep-02
by Faiz Kermani, PhD, Chiltern International, UK A growing trend Mergers and acquisitions have become relatively commonplace in the pharmaceutical industry and this has led to speculation that large-scale industry consolidation is inevitable. In the 1980s there were about 80 major pharmaceutical companies. In 2000 this fell to around 35 pharmaceutical companies and by 2010 it has been predicted that there will be about a dozen major companies 1. [...] click on titel to read more
Superbugs knockin' on the door	28-Aug-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Medical microbiologists and hygiene experts are warning against the excessive use of antibiotics for years now. They observe more and more resistancies which have been forced by the constant misuse of antibiotics. [...] click on titel to read more
What next for Biopharmaceutical R&D?	02-Aug-02
by Faiz Kermani, PhD, Chiltern International, UK During the last 30 years, the biopharmaceutical industry has successfully launched nearly 1,400 new chemical entities as human therapeutics, and has achieved strong sales as a result 1. As a result of these successes, many companies have shown double-digit growth year on year. [...] click on titel to read more
Oh no ... not another article about stem cell research	19-Jul-02
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience ... but it might be interesting for you, dear reader, that there are some strange things going on these days at least in Germany! On July 1st 2002 the German parliament voted to allow embryonic stem cell research and the installation of an authority to control the import. Their solution: research is allowed, but unproved import of embryonic stem cell material is forbidden. A decision other nations govt's had made within a few weeks. Additionally, all German researchers will be punished in case of violation as severely as drug dealers. [...] click on titel to read more
Que Sera Sera	11-Jul-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Consolidation along a wide front. We are already used to regular news about buying ups (usually called "mergers") as well as the dying of under-financed biotech businesses. In some cases we are not really surprised, in others we are sorry about the loss of fascinating and innovative enterprises. But, that is how markets work. [...] click on titel to read more
Will the LION roar again?	24-Jun-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Well, they had been superstars within the emerging German Biotech industry moving to stock markets - LION Bioscience, a bioinformatics specialist located in the fertile Heidelberg 'Bioregion'. LION was founded 1997 as a spin-off of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), one of the major bioscience think tanks. [...] click on titel to read more
Australian biotech's global push	10-Jun-02
by Paris Brooke, SDA Biotech Biotechnology is undergoing a resurgence in Australia, triggered by a growing number of world class medical science discoveries and major policy and funding commitments by the national, state and territory governments. A key trend in the sector also reflects its global nature as the Australian biotechs seek to make their mark internationally. [...] click on titel to read more
The Biomanufacturing Issue	27-Mai-02
by Dr. Klaus Düring, MPB Cologne GmbH Biomanufacturing is an issue being widely neglected. It should be the opposite as it might turn out be a major obstacle in successful drug development and marketing. Novel efficient technologies for protein manufacturing are required. [...] click on titel to read more
Strategic Planning in Biotechnology	13-Mai-02
by Dipl.-Biotechn. Christian Müller, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg Biotechnology companies see themselves confronted with a set of challenges in the next years. Internationalization, cooperative activities, mergers and acquisitions are the most important key drivers for the biotechnology industry in the future. In order to respond successfully to new technological as well as market trends, it is crucial to recognize the importance of a strategic planning process. [...] click on titel to read more
Bottlenecks in Proteomics	30-Apr-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information services Let's start with a joke. "What are three Germans doing that you have put into one room? - Founding an association!" In Germany we have associations for everything in the smallest village. Associations of hen breeders, associations of stamp collectors, associations of local singers, associations of hobby gardeners, associations of wine drinkers, associations of The Kelly Family concert visitors, and so on. Since late 2001 we additionally have the German Society for Proteome Research (DGPF, www.dgpf.org), whose very first founding charter was wrote down on a beer mat (well, we are in Germany, aren't we). [...] click on titel to read more
Singapore: An Emerging Reginal Hub for Biomedical Sciences - Part III	17-Apr-02
by Dr. Andreas Respondek, LL.M., Respondek & Fan Pte Ltd. 5. Types of Business Organizations According to the specific needs of the investor, Singapore provides different forms of business enterprises. Basically, any business may be incorporated with limited liability (most frequently used), or simply be registered as a business. The principal forms of business organizations in Singapore are: [...] click on titel to read more
Singapore: An Emerging Reginal Hub for Biomedical Sciences - Part II	09-Apr-02
by Dr. Andreas Respondek, LL.M., Respondek & Fan Pte Ltd. 2.5 Future Singapore Projects In The Health Care and Biomedical Sciences Area Three major future projects include the following: [...] click on titel to read more
Singapore: An Emerging Reginal Hub for Biomedical Sciences - Part I	02-Apr-02
by Dr. Andreas Respondek, LL.M., Respondek & Fan Pte Ltd. Executive Summary Backed-up by a pro-business minded government, Singapore is well on its way to become the leading Biomedical Sciences Center in South-East Asia. The government promoted strategy is based on the integration of research and development, combined with a dedicated manpower development as well as the development of an adequate infrastructure. To sustain its regional leadership position into the future, Singapore has decided to expand the knowledge-based industries of information technology, biotechnology and biomedicine. Besides, Singapore also aims to provide business incubator facilities and services to promising start-up biomedical companies, and assisting these companies in locating initial investors and other venture capital or conventional financing. [...] click on titel to read more
Scientific information- where are the visions?	15-Mar-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information services Well, honestly, things are on the move these days. Scientists and publishers are discussing new ways of publishing scientific results. EMBO starts an initiative to set up a platform that will provide services relating to access and retrieval of digital information in the life sciences, ranging from bibliographic or factual data to published full text - E-BioSci. Even database publishers draw nearer academic institutions to promote their content products. [...] click on titel to read more
Animated Process Simulation for the Life Science Industry	08-Mar-02
by Dr. Patrik Scholler, Sciconis GmbH When a pilot learns how to fly an airplane, he does not have to risk his life and the crashing of a multi-million dollar jumbo jet. He can practice flying in a flight-simulator. He learns about the effects of his actions in virtual reality. This is much cheaper and depending on the quality of the simulation model, very effective. When he realizes the effects of pushing buttons or changing the height level, he will see the effects on the total system. And this complex "mass-velocity-turbulence-etc." aircraft-system can approach instability very easily. The simulating pilot will learn how to avoid mistakes before regretting them in heaven. [...] click on titel to read more
Bavarian Nordic: at the right time, at the right place, with the right technology	22-Feb-02
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants One of the major topics of the post-cold-war area has always been the prevention of biological warfare. This task came up much earlier than the Gulf war and hints that Saddam might plan to use biological weapons against ethnic minorities as well as a part of military strategies. Just remember the international efforts to actively remove a life form from our planet: smallpox (Variola). [...] click on titel to read more
Embryonic stem cell import approved in Germany	01-Feb-02
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Scientist expect stem cell research to become common. But the German Bundestag had to vote on January 30th on whether to allow the import of human embryonic stem cells into Germany. It voted in favour and so German researchers will soon be able to work using stem cells derived from human embryos. [...] click on titel to read more
Jus sanguini or blood-letting for the world ...	11-Jan-02
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience At late summer European blood banker were overwhelmed by news from Hoffman-La Roche to raise licence fees not for a test-kit but for each test. This means that the blood banks as Red Cross could use one test-kit because of its high sensitivity. This will increase cost for save blood donations 300 million EURO a year for 15 million blood conserves in Europe. [...] click on titel to read more
Chasing in the Jungle	14-Dez-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Fighting through the data jungle, in secret mission for "Crown and country" as a top secret spy with the license to find. Or - an approach on the difficulties to dig some information about natural compound screening market data and its future prospects. [...] click on titel to read more
Semantic Knowledge Management	30-Nov-01
by Dr. Patrik Scholler, Sciconis GmbH Do you believe that the internet is a powerful and gigantic database? It appears so. If you search for "genomics technology platform" by Google, you will receive immediately 654 documents about the subject, truly a gigantic amount of information and unfortunately too much to read. It is kind of interesting in a statistical sense, but does it help you in answering the question you have in mind? You would probably either try a different search string or start reading from top or you might simply continue working with your old genomics technology platform. Interestingly, somebody else might not even name it so, even if he had the same. He might call his high-throughput robot 'liquid handling device', one of fifteen possible synonyms, and would only have to deal with 23 documents. But what good are 23 documents when you miss the 654 plus a lot more, containing important information for you to take the best possible decision. In any case, getting exactly what you mean< [...] click on titel to read more
Dancing with Yeasts	09-Nov-01
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants The fact that this year's Nobel Price in Medicine has been awarded to three Yeast researchers should not lead to the wrong conclusion that the Nobel committee appreciated the fight against alcoholism or overweight. In fact without the tasty products of Brewers or Bakers Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) our lives would be much more healthy but - honestly - less nicer. Coming to the point, the award really recognizes the contributions of Leland Hartwell, Paul Nurse and Timothy Hunt to the understanding the control mechanisms of the cell cycle, the molecular cell division management system. [...] click on titel to read more
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder	05-Nov-01
by Melissa Haertsch, eMedsecurities' Immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, pharmacies reported a huge jump in sales of sleeping pills and anti-depressants.  One pharmacist on the Upper East Side of Manhattan told Reuters he'd seen a 50% rise is sales of Ambien, Pharmacia's (PHA) sleep aid. Other areas of the country saw sales increase up to 30%.  While anxiety and sleeplessness are a natural response to traumas such as the attacks, it is possible for psychological and physiological reactions to exceed the [...] click on titel to read more
Botulism, Plague & Tularemia in Biowar	29-Okt-01
by Melissa Haertsch, eMedsecurities' The CDC has asked national healthcare providers to be alert for signs of potential biological attacks. Earlier segments of the eMedWeekly biowar series have covered anthrax and smallpox. This final installment will give synopses of the other main biological threats: botulism, plague and tularemia, or rabbit fever. For a discussion of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, another biowar worrying point, see the eMedWeekly archives. [...] click on titel to read more
German Minister upsets plant biotechnology industry	26-Okt-01
by Ellen Peerenboom On October 15 the German federal Minister for Consumers Protection, Food and Agriculture Renate Künast has announced that she had written a letter to the EU Commissioner Byrne to say that the German government is not going to take up the permission procedure for GMOs until they have implemented the revised directive (2001/18/EC) on release of GMO (90/220/EEC April 2001) into the German law (deadline 0ctober 17th 2002). This letter came as an answer to a working paper of the European Commission's directorates for environment and Health and Consumers Protection on resumption of the authorisation procedure for GMOs. [...] click on titel to read more
Smallpox in Biowar	22-Okt-01
by Melissa Haertsch, eMedsecurities' The smallpox virus is a highly contagious, fairly deadly disease which was declared eradicated from the human population in 1977 as the result of a 10-year [...] click on titel to read more
There are lies, damn lies and statistics	19-Okt-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience As a result of our daily work, editing an online journal about biotechnology and its related sciences, the evaluation of statistics is an important and useful matter of fact. As information broker it is our job to verify information. Since scientific information rose up to overwhelming amounts of data, it is more and more important to look for what really can be right. The biomedical world knowledge is doubling all five years, probably. Some intelligent people assume it. It is impossible to be up to date on all fields of science. Well, the reason why I am giving current stem cell research discussion a wide berth, is that there are editorials about that enough of all those who object. [...] click on titel to read more
The value of information	05-Okt-01
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Two weeks ago I participated in a strategy workshop organized by Arthur D. Little and the German Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF). As part of our talks we discussed the value of scientific information as well as the existing scientific information distribution and access structures. As two major problems we identified that scientists are not really aware of a variety of information resources they could access, and that publication and valuation processes will intensively change within the next years. [...] click on titel to read more
What is wrong with Morphosys?	21-Sep-01
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants A star was born in 1999. The young Biotech company Morphosys, a Munich Biotech-Region start-up, made an excellent rise at the German 'Neuer Markt' stock exchange. Morphosys started with EUR 25,00 in 1999 and raised up to more than EUR 350,00 in early 2000. [...] click on titel to read more
Private financing or independence of science?	31-Aug-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Already a hundred years ago universities worked in very close contact with industry, but today's dimension of privately financed research was unthinkable. Nowadays solid research would not be affordable if young biologists had to receive a fair salary for their work. The solution is: big science needs/requires big business! [...] click on titel to read more
Under pressure	17-Aug-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Research needs money; biotech research needs a lot in order to develop new drugs! Scientific career means a high ranking on citation index. The international life science community is under pressure to get enough findings for their research. Today, science is involved in politics and markets. As an example, where does the money come from, since US president Bush froze public findings for stem cell research? His decision was caused by thoughts about his re-election, this means he needs polls of religious and conservative anti-abortionists. [...] click on titel to read more
Stem cell research treated by the German media	20-Jul-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Harmless, innocent stem cells grow in simple plastic cartridges, in a few labs all over the world. One year ago perhaps hundred researchers discussed opportunities and future chances of stem cells. [...] click on titel to read more
Will drug discovery benefit from genomic revolution?	06-Jul-01
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants Although the public debate on hazards of genomics is going on - and mixed up with issues as regenerative medicine, abortion and eugenics - application of genomics has become reality for a couple of years. The pharmaceutical industry has entered or found itself dragged into the genomic era as a result of its efforts to achieve greater commercial successes. Genomics was said to be the driving force for the revolution of drug discovery. Almost every major pharmaceutical company made substantial investments in enabling technologies as combinatorial chemistry, HT-platforms and powerful computational tools for data management on the belief that use of new drug discovery technology will greatly improve the efficiency of its R&D processes. [...] click on titel to read more
Shall we do it ourselves or should we rather have it done?	18-Mai-01
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants Recently published reports on promising outcome of stem cell research bestow priority on the debate over ethical issues of this kind of research. Especially the report on mouse embryonic stem cells that could be manipulated to become the specialized parts of the pancreas responsible for regulating blood sugar levels was acclaimed as quantum leap in the efforts aiming at an effective treatment of diabetes. Facing the evident chances which may be bound up with usage of stem cells for a new generation of treatments for diseases not only the scientific community but also national governments and - at the end - each individual have to weigh up interest of medicinal research - and in the beginning it will be basic medicinal research far away from going into action in human patients - against the right of an embryo to exist. But just this kind of posing the question is suitable for polarization of the debate. [...] click on titel to read more
Human Cloning: Are scientific advances outpacing legislation?	04-Mai-01
by Faiz Kermani, PhD, CMR International The technology behind cloning has advanced rapidly since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996. Despite the attempts of some scientists to distance themselves from the idea, there has been renewed speculation about the possibility of using the techniques to clone humans. [...] click on titel to read more
Proposal for revealing a genome	13-Apr-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience We are approaching the complete decoded human genome. The results were mined up faster than expected. What's next? The era of proteomics will be able to explore, what is going on in our organisms and perhaps we will have solutions for disease management in the near future. [...] click on titel to read more
Cell Transplants for Parkinson's sufferers - the end of hope?	23-Mar-01
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants The public outcry in view of the announcement of three reproductivity experts, Severino Antinori (Italy), Avi Ben-Abraham (Israel) and Panayiotis Zavos (USA) to clone human babies has thrusted another vehement controversy into the background. Are fetal cell transplants in Parkinson's sufferers a disastrous therapy? [...] click on titel to read more
"New ecological disaster ..."	09-Mar-01
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants ... huge amounts of NaCl have been found in 98% of all seawater samples taken in the English Channel two days ago. Environmental activists claimed that [...] click on titel to read more
Carne vale!	23-Feb-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Dear readers, ... once you have overcome your fear of public writing, you will never be asked to write again. I am in a devilish mood today. Oggi, sono il bajazzo di carnevale della biotechnología. [...] click on titel to read more
From Hype to Hysteria!	09-Feb-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Dear readers, ... I am here to speak to you, you are here to listen to me, if you finished first let me know! I am overwhelmed by power of mass media. More precisely, about contemporary propaganda. I intend to think about medias propagandistic influence and its witch-hunt. [...] click on titel to read more
BSE - a challenge to enthusiasm about science and online-fees	26-Jan-01
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants For weeks headlines on BSE have been dominating the newspapers in Europe. An infinite number of websites provides the most actual information on BSE, amongst these official sources of information like the mad cow disease site of the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (www.maff.gov.uk) and the report on the BSE inquiry (www.bse.org.uk). [...] click on titel to read more
Sense and sensibility	12-Jan-01
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Traditionally an old years end is the time of reflections. No, I do not mean the bright glittering snow in some peoples winter holidays. I am talking [...] click on titel to read more
Biotech Shares 2000	05-Jan-01
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience Seven leading stock analysts with SG Cowen Securities, Bank of America Securities, Lehman Brothers and Hambrecht & Quist examined in a review the pharma sector 1999 in The Wall Street Transcript. They added an outlook of the development of biotech and pharma shares in the US-market 2000. [...] click on titel to read more
Jumping forward!	29-Dez-00
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience My very good fellows, this seems to become an annual report of what has happened in biotech 2000. Well, there are a plenty of these glances backward at nearly everything of course. But after having a short nap at work, this is [...] click on titel to read more
Germany set to become an innovation incubator	01-Dez-00
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants Something is going on in Germany. The number of biotech companies is heading European statistics, special facilities for start-ups [...] click on titel to read more
Going public	03-Nov-00
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants Do you remember? Y2K had been announced as the great entry into the millennium of biotechnology! Did you get it? 2000 in biotechnology was planned as the year of the big conferences and meetings as well as the year of the phenomenal announcements. This should have been the grandiose prelude for an international campaign against the technique critics. But did anyone - besides scientists - really pay attention to all the efforts. Honestly: no. [...] click on titel to read more
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium Announces "Working Draft" Of Human Genome	30-Jun-00
The Human Genome Project public consortium announced that it has assembled a working draft of the sequence of the human genome - the genetic blueprint for a human being. The assembly reported consists of overlapping fragments covering 97 percent of the human genome, of which sequence has already been assembled for approximately 85 percent of the genome. The average quality of the "working draft" sequence far exceeds the consortium's original expectations for this intermediate product. Consortium centers have produced far more sequence data than expected (over 22.1 billion bases of raw sequence data, comprising overlapping fragments totaling 3.9 billion bases and providing 7-fold sequence coverage of the human genome). As a result, the "working draft" is substantially closer to the ultimate "finished" form than the consortium expected at this stage. Approximately 50 percent of the genome sequence is in near-"finished" form or better, and 24 percent of it is in completely "finished" form. [...] click on titel to read more
First German biotech merger	02-Jun-00
by Dr. Sibylle Kaiser, scitari information consultants DeveloGen & regenerative gene therapy The merger, which is scheduled for summer 2000, combines the scientific competence of Develogen AG and HepaVec AG on liver regeneration, diabetes and obesity. In addition to traditional target discovery for drug screening both companies were engaged in using gene therapy for treatment of liver cancer and metabolic live disorders. The new company aims to develop a specialised form of gene therapy characterized as "regenerative". "In contrast to traditional gene therapy approaches, DeveloGen is focusing on the introduction of genes that will reprogram the specific developmental cascades to regenerate the defective cellular structures" stated Mike Rothe, Vice President, Research and Development at DeveloGen. [...] click on titel to read more
Biotech in Past and Future	04-Feb-00
by Andreas Wellstein, Inside-Lifescience The year 1999 ended with a reborn interest in biotech industry and its stocks. The new year seems to become another turbulent one for biotech industry as it faces a lot of challenges and changes like the increasing merger activity and GMO labelling discussions in Europe. [...] click on titel to read more
Coming soon: The Millenium of Genomes	03-Dez-99
by Dr. Christian Velten, scitari information consultants The last years of the ending millenium were dominated by the collection of huge amounts of sequence data. It will be the challenge of the coming ages to make the best out of it. So, as a special gift for our subscribers, the BIONEWS team presents you a list of major human genome resources on the web. May your Y2K be crowned with success. [...] click on titel to read more mailtext /max=350

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A selection of biotechnology discussion groups ...

sci.bio.technology
aol.news.business.biotechnology
alt.bio.technology
fr.bio.genome
bionet.general
sci.bio.food-science
bionet.sci-resources
bionet.molbio.genome-program
bionet.software
bionet.software.www

All published articles