Month: January 2012
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Novartis to Restructure, Cut 1,960 U.S. Jobs
The Swiss company Novartis Pharmaceuticals said on Friday it plans to reorganize its General Medicines division in the U.S. resulting in a loss of 1,960 jobs. The company said it expects the job cuts to take place in the second quarter of 2012. Novartis plans to reduce its General Medicines field workforce by 1,630 jobs…
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Nominations Open for U.S. Technology-Innovation Medal
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has opened nominations for the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the country’s highest award for technological achievement. Nominations for the medal, awarded annually by the president, are due on 31 March. Individuals, teams of up to four individuals, companies, and divisions of companies are eligible to compete…
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Sorry about the abrupt absence
This past Wednesday afternoon, 11 January, I had to abruptly stop posting on Science Business for the rest of the week, while I took care of a personal medical issue. Be assured, however, I’m still walking the face of the earth and plan to return to regular posting on Monday, 16 January. I plan to…
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UC San Francisco, Sanofi to Partner on Diabetes Therapies
University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) and the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi have agreed to collaborate on diabetes research. Under the $3.1 million partnership, UCSF and Sanofi will share their expertise and identify new drug targets for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The collaboration is expected to bring together researchers in UCSF labs…
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U.S. Patent Granted for Peptide-Based Obesity Treatment
Unigene Laboratories Inc. in Boonton, New Jersey has received a patent for its appetite suppression technology used in the treatment of obesity. Patent no. 8,076,291 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office was issued on 13 December 2011. The patent protects the company’s compounds that work like the hormone calcitonin to reduce the appetite…
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Faster, Cheaper Thermoelectric Materials Process Developed
Engineers and materials scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York have discovered new methods to create nanomaterials for more efficient refrigerators and cooling systems with no refrigerants or moving parts. The research is described in a paper published online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required), and the authors have started commercializing…
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Sanofi, VCs Back Start-Up Deriving Natural Product Drugs
The French drug maker Sanofi, with American venture capital (VC) companies Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners, are investing up to $125 million in Warp Drive Bio a new biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Warp Drive Bio, being incubated at Third Rock Ventures, specializes in using genomics to derive drug candidates from natural sources, such…
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Modified Graphene Found to Dissipate Electronics Heat
Researchers in the U.S., Korea, and China have discovered a modified form of the material graphene with better thermal properties than graphene in its natural state. The team led by Alexander Balandin, an engineering professor at University of California – Riverside, published its findings online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The researchers…
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$600M Venture Fund Targets Technology, Health Care Sectors
Canaan Partners, a venture capital company in Menlo Park, California says it has closed contributions to a new fund to finance start-ups in the technology and health care fields. The company says the $600 million fund, the ninth such fund in its series, will support new technology and health care entrepreneurs. Canaan Partners says two-thirds…
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Foundation to Fund Drug Maker Diabetic Eye Disease Research
KalVista Pharmaceuticals in Southampton, U.K. and JDRF in New York have formed a partnership to develop a drug candidate with potential to slow the advance of diabetic macular edema (DME). The collaboration aims to move KalVista’s plasma kallikrein inhibitor into human proof-of-concept clinical trials and generate clinical data to highlight its potential as a new…