> Massachusetts businessman Phillip T. Ragon announced today that he is donating $100 million to create a new research institute that will be devoted to discovering an effective HIV vaccine. Ragon is contributing $10 million a year for 10 years to fund work that will draw together top scientists from Harvard, MIT and Mass. General. Report
> The startup Eiger Biopharmaceuticals has raised $7.1 million. InterWest Partners and Vivo Ventures participated in the round. Report
> Allos Therapeutics touted the results of its mid-stage study for pralatrexate--a drug designed to treat relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma or a diverse group of blood cancers--saying it demonstrated a "better-than-expected" median duration of response of 9.4 months. Story
> GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance announced positive results from three, separate Phase 2b studies assessing efficacy and safety of GSK's inhaled corticosteroid fluticasone furoate (FF or GW685698) across a range of eight doses (25 - 800 mcg) in over 1,800 patients with mild, moderate and severe asthma. Release
> Peregrine Pharmaceuticals says that its cancer drug bavituximab met its primary endpoint in a mid-stage trial for previously untreated locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Release
> Sinclair Pharma has bought out the 49.95 percent of Spain's Laboratorios Novo Pharma it didn't already own. Sinclair release
> A lender to the troubled Florida biotech Bioheart is demanding repayment of a loan after a payment default at the end of January. Report
> Sangamo BioSciences says that its collaborators have opened a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate SB-728-T for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Sangamo release
> File under 'it had to happen': Iceland's Actavis Group is asking for takeover bids. The generics maker could bring as much as $7.8 billion, MarketWatch reports. Among the interested parties are--reportedly, anyway--Sanofi-Aventis, which has been putting together financing for potential deals; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; and Watson Pharmaceuticals. Actavis report
> Is this more evidence that Roche needs Genentech? The Swiss drugmaker posted disappointing profits--sending not only its stock tumbling, but Euro-pharma stocks in general. The company suffered a sickening drop in Tamiflu sales, partly offset by strong sales of the cancer meds it owns with Genentech. But that partial ownership wasn't enough to prevent an 8 percent decline in profits for 2008. And Roche offered a cautious outlook for 2009, predicting sales growth of around 5 percent. Report
> The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence promised to reconsider four costly-but-cutting-edge kidney cancer drugs after its initial rejection fueled public outcry. Now, NICE has given its blessing to just one of the four: Pfizer's Sutent. Report
> Harvard Medical School has joined the parade of educational institutions strengthening their conflict-of-interest rules for their doctors and researchers, the Boston Globe reports. The news comes at a time when the U.S. Senate is investigating some of the school's faculty members for their relationships with industry. Report
> A team of research scientists found that a long-used vascular drug improved the memory of rats. And the team says that the same drug could offer a new approach to combating neurodegenerative diseases as well as the normal cognitive decline seen in middle age. Report
> Creating a mouse that churned out twice the normal levels of a protein called Nrf2 protected them from Parkinson's disease, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Report
And Finally... The UK's National Health Service has given a tentative nod to Pfizer's cancer drug Sutent. That's a shift for the regulatory group, which signaled in August that Sutent was not cost effective. Story