@FierceBiotech: Venter team births world's first synthetic cell. Report | Follow @FierceBiotech
@JohnCFierce: Any biotech looking for a piece of the $1B tax credit/grant better be ready to play. This money will be gone quickly. | Follow @JohnCFierce
> Biogen Idec will hand over a $30 million milestone payment to Abbott with the launch of a late-stage study of daclizumab on multiple sclerosis. The two companies announced this morning that they had enrolled the first patient in the study. Abbott release
> Clinical Data says the FDA accepted its NDA for the depression drug vilazodon, triggering a $15.6 million payment to Merck Serono. Story
> Shareholders in Israel's Aposense are investing $3 million in the developer ahead of a planned IPO. Aposense is looking to raise $20 million in the IPO. Report
> Synta Pharmaceuticals says that the first stage of a clinical trial of STA-9090 for non small-cell lung cancer produced signs of clinical activity, spurring researchers on to the second stage of the study. STA-9090 is a Hsp90 inhibitor. Synta release
> Immunome sys it has raised R&D funds from private investors and an arm of the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania. This financing will enable Immunome to identify our first therapeutic candidate utilizing our monoclonal antibody technology," said Tim Pelura, president and CEO. "Immunome's technology, licensed from MIT and Thomas Jefferson University, enables us to harness the natural curative potential of the human immune system." Story
> Knoxville, TN-based Provectus says that it has positive new data to report from its mid-stage study of PV-10 for metastatic melanoma. Provectus release
> A $3 million advance from GlaxoSmithKline provided some cash flow for Israel's Proteologics. Story
And Finally... UK officials are barring Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who helped fuel conspiracy theories of a link between vaccines and autism, from practicing medicine. A medical panel found his work was dishonest, misleading and irresponsible. But millions of parents around the world still refuse to have their children vaccinated at least in part because of his bogus 1998 autism study. Story