@FierceBiotech: Merck to shutter eight R&D facilities, cuts 15,000 jobs in global restructuring. Article | Follow @FierceBiotech
@JohnCFierce: Sanofi is planning to set up HQ for new cancer division in Cambridge, MA, adding 300 jobs. Article | Follow @JohnCFierce
> Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:OPTR) has received a $500,000 milestone payment from Cempra Pharmaceuticals, pursuant to the terms of a licensing agreement between the companies. Release
> Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (STO: SOBI) plan to advance the companies' long-lasting, fully-recombinant factor VIII Fc fusion protein (rFVIIIFc) into a registrational clinical trial in people with hemophilia A. Release
> Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, an eight-year-old startup, will likely beat General Electric and Bayer to the market with the first imaging test to pinpoint Alzheimer's early on in the disease. News
> A protein has been discovered which could have major implications for cancer treatments, scientists have said. Researchers at the University of Dundee described the protein as "molecular scissors" that repair damaged DNA in human cells, helping to prevent mutations that can lead to cancer. Report
> Looking for skilled, low-cost labor? Forget about India and China. How about Jonesboro, Arkansas? Take Human Genome Sciences, a Rockville, MD, biotech company. The 900-employee company got bids from several outsourcers to handle the technical support for its back-office software. One of those bidders, AnswerThink, would have offshored the work to India. But the idea of sending confidential company information overseas, outside the reach of American intellectual property law, didn't sit well with David Evans, an IT director at Human Genome Sciences. Story
> More proof that Denver is becoming the go-to destination for all things cannabis. Only a few weeks after an American-born hemp entrepreneur announced he was moving his headquarters from Amsterdam to the Denver area comes word that a major biotech company specializing in research on marijuana is planning on setting up its headquarters in Denver in a 9,500 square foot facility. Report
And Finally... Researchers have found a drug that can help the brain grow new cells and said their study may lead to ways to improve experimental Alzheimer's drugs. Story