Illumina rejects hostile Roche bid – Merck to submit new insomnia candidate – And Indorama buys Old World
PHARMACEUTICAL – Genome sequencing company Illumina has formally rejected the $5.7 billion (£3.6 billion) hostile takeover bid from Roche which it has described as ‘inadequate’. Chief executive Jay Flatley said: ‘Our industry is nascent, with the promise and [...]
Last year, we reported on some research that was repurposing personal glucose meters (PGMs; the little devices that detect your blood sugar level) to enable the detection of a variety of other analytes (cocaine and uranium, among other things). Now the same team have adapted the idea to the detection of DNA, with impressive precision [...]
5 February 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…
Obama urged to cut FDA ties with Monsanto
Petition pressing President Obama to oust FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods goes viral, garnering over 380,000 signatures
DNA walker strides towards the light
Nucleic acid machines powered by light could [...]
India investing big in clean energy – Merck strikes deal with Threshold – And Valeant buys Probiotica
PHARMACEUTICAL – The news that UK pharma giant AstraZeneca is to cut a further 7300 jobs is not a sign that the UK pharma industry is at risk, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). ‘AstraZeneca has [...]
The sleepy secret secreted by the opium poppy has brought pain relief to millions. But just as it’s helped to save lives, it’s also responsible for taking them. Simon Cotton tells the tale of the addictive analgesic, morphine, in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.
In the February podcast, we’re all about nanoparticles: they clean up blood, they can listen to cellular noises, they get rid of unwanted pests and they worm their way into the environment. Plus, we learn that fluorinated chemicals might be making their way into our food and discuss the unusual case [...]
Eastman buys Solutia – Drug company pact to target neglected diseases – And Pfizer birth control pill recall
CHEMICAL – US chemical company Eastman has bought Solutia for $4.7 billion (£3 billion). The move will strengthen Eastman’s presence in emerging markets, particularly the Asia Pacific market. It will also save the two companies $100 million per [...]
29 January 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…
NERC asks institutes to weed out poor grants
Research council plans to improve grant success rates by getting universities to screen out ‘uncompetitive’ proposals
Whistleblowers accuse FDA of spying, persecution
US FDA employees sue agency, saying they were [...]
US approves skin treatment – Amgen buys Micromet for $1.16bn – And Dow enters carbon fibre joint venture
PHARMACEUTICAL – Privately owned Danish pharma company Leo Pharma has won US approval for anticancer treatment Picato gel (ingenol mebutate). Specifically, the gel has been approved for treating actinic keratosis, which causes red scaly skin lesions as a result [...]
Somewhere in a dim and distant chemistry lesson we were first introduced to the atom. We learned that it has a nucleus (a bit like the sun) and that around the nucleus, dutifully obeying classical mechanics, orbited the electrons (much like the planets). The simplicity of the idea seduced even the great Niels Bohr. Everything [...]
