@FierceBiotech: Bluebird in spotlight after gene therapy cures blood disorder. Article | Follow @FierceBiotech
> Cleveland BioLabs has won a $45 million contract from the Department of Defense for its injectable compound CBLB502. The Buffalo, NY-based company gets about $15 million to keep working on the program and complete its application and will get a $30 million order if it wins an approval. Story
> Less than a year after getting the helm of Lycera, an Ann Arbor, MI-based biotech, CEO Bill Sibold is out of the job. Lycera Chairman Jeff Leiden tells Xconomy that "Bill is a senior and experienced biotech executive with an excellent track record at Biogen, but both he and the board felt that the fit was not optimal with a heavily science based company like Lycera." Article
> Just a few days after wrapping a $70 million investment round, Relypsa is reporting positive mid-stage data for its lead drug, RLY5016, in heart failure patients. RLY5016 is described as a "high capacity non-absorbed oral potassium binder being developed for the chronic and acute management of hyperkalemia, which is most prevalent in patients that suffer from renal impairment, hypertension, diabetes and heart failure." Relypsa release
> India's Ipca Laboratories says that it plans to introduce three new medicines for pain and heart ailments by the end of the first quarter of next year. Report
> Alkermes won an FDA panel vote in favor of extending use of its addiction drug to opioid abusers. Item
And Finally... The monkey virus that evolved into HIV could be up to a million years old. But it only turned lethal sometime in the 20th century. Story