NIH Publishes New Solicitation of Assays for MLSCN
The National Institutes of Health announced new deadlines for applications to participate in the Molecular Libraries and Screening Center Network, which intends to screen 100 to 200 HTS assays per year.
A full schedule of submission dates can be found here.
The new solicitation supercedes PAR-05-147. New applications require electronic submission through Grants.gov using SF424R&R forms instead of the SF424 forms that were previously used in PAR-05-147. Programmatic aspects of the original announcement remain the same.
While there are no funds attached to acceptance in the library, NIH will support the costs of assay automation, screening and optimization chemistry.
The MLSCN was launched in July 2005.
PerkinElmer to Supply NCGC with Reagents, Tech, and Manpower
PerkinElmer said this week that it will provide reagents, instrumentation, and scientific support for the National Institute of Health's Chemical Genomics Center.
Under the terms of the deal, NCGC gets access to PerkinElmers AlphaScreen, Lance, and Delfia technologies as well as the company's assay and protocol researchers.
PerkinElmer's remuneration was not released.
Evotec's 10-Percent Increase in 2005 Revenues Driven by Services; Tech Unit Falls Short of Expectations
Evotec this week said that total group revenues for Q4 increased by 10 percent to €79.8 million ($96.7 million) from €72.7 million in 2004.
This growth was driven by a strong performance in Evotec's drug-discovery services division, the company said. Revenues for the service division grew 12 percent to €61 million, from €54.5 million in the previous year.
However, Evotec's technology and tools division, which markets the Opera confocal HCS reader and other automated drug-discovery tools, saw its 2005 revenues drop 12 percent to €17 million, from €19.3 million in 2004.
Evotec said that a large portion of the 2004 technology and tools revenues included a significant contribution from the sale of an EVOScreen automated drug-discovery platform.
Evotec said that its overall net losses were more than halved, to €33.6 million from €77.8 million in the prior year.
As of Dec. 31, 2005, Evotec had cash and cash equivalents totaling €53.5 million.
Serologicals Completes $7M Cytomyx Buy
Serologicals said this week that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Cytomyx Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cytomyx Holdings, for $7 million.
Serologicals originally announced the deal earlier this month (see CBA News, 3/17/2006).
The acquisition is expected to provide Serologicals entry into ion channel drug-discovery market and bolster the company's drug screening service capabilities.
Genentech Acquires OriGene's Human cDNA Collection
OriGene Technologies said this week that Genentech has purchased its TrueClone Collection of full-length human cDNAs suitable for transfection and direct in vitro expression.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Immunicon and Pfizer Extend Clinical Research and Development Pact
Immunicon said this week that it has extended its research and development agreement with Pfizer.
Under the terms of the agreement, which began in Feb. 2003, Immunicon collaborates with Pfizer to develop new reagents designed to detect undisclosed antigens on circulating tumor cells.
BD Biosciences and Dynomics Partner for Leukemia, Lymphoma Dx Development
BD Biosciences has partnered with Dutch diagnostics shop Dynomics to develop tests for leukemia and lymphoma, BD said this week.
BD now has an exclusive worldwide license to specific intellectual property related to the flow cytometry detection of fusion proteins, the company said.
William Rhodes, president of cell analysis at BD Biosciences, said that the partnership will give "BD the opportunity to advance technical solutions that can be applied in [its] core markets of ASR and reagent components used in leukemia and lymphoma testing."
Financial terms were not disclosed.