ALSO NOTED: Pfizer honcho details plans to boost sales; FDA grants NPS orphan drug status;and much more...

> Pfizer's drug chief Ian Read details plans to boost sales. Report [1]

> As part of its push to attract biotech business to the state, North Carolina State University has opened the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training & Education Center (BTEC) to provide students and industry employees with the specialized education and training needed to work in the biopharmaceutical industry. Release [2]

> Roche is starting to look like that annoying guy who won't take no for an answer--the company keeps asking Ventana Medical Systems if it wants to join up, and Ventana keeps refusing. Report [3]

> Singapore has been aggressive in developing its life science industry. Last year the country announced that it would spend $8 billion [4] over the next five years to strengthen its R&D capabilities, along with other incentive programs to attract biotech business. In fact, Singapore was on our 2006 list of biotech hot spots [5]. But one thing Singapore isn't attracting is lots of venture capital investment. Report [6]

> The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to NPS Pharmaceuticals for PREOS, a treatment of hypoparathyroidism. Release [7]

> Ronald DePinho, MD, director of the Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says that using three or more kinase-blocking therapies like Gleevec and Tarceva in combination are needed to shut down abnormal cell-growth signals. Report [8]

> Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich have determined that cancer stem cells govern metastasis in pancreatic cancer as well as making tumors resistant to chemotherapy. Report [9]

And Finally... Bioengineering researchers in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies. Release [10]