As big pharma has tightened the purse strings for technology spending, proteomics companies who rely on research deals for revenues had to make cuts — including MDS Proteomics. But there is a silver lining on the horizon: MDSP is expecting to sign a deal with a large pharmaceutical company “within 4 to 6 weeks,” and has initiated three pilot projects with pharmaceutical companies that bring in some revenue, according to Anil Amlani, MDSP’s CFO.