@FierceBiotech: Abbott chops 1,900 workers after experimental drugs flop. Article | Follow @FierceBiotech
@JohnCFierce: Viehbacher on Genzyme buyout: A good way to amp up its biotech work. Report | Follow @JohnCFierce
> Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, an antibiotics company in New Haven, CT., has taken in $5.5 million of a planned $22 million offering combining debt, warrants and options, according to a regulatory filing. News
> Pain Therapeutics has received a $5 million milestone payment from King Pharmaceuticals, its exclusive commercial partner for abuse-resistant prescription pain medications. Payment was made in connection with the acceptance by the FDA of an investigational new drug application for abuse-resistant oxymorphone. Pain Therapeutics release
> N.Y. State assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow has introduced the "act to amend the insurance law, in relation to requiring coverage for genetic testing in accident and health insurance polices." While not widely covered by media outlets, the bill merits close attention. While the substance of the bill is striking, its greater import lies in what it reveals about the nation's current framework for personalized medicine regulation and in what the bill portends for the future of personalized medicine innovation and investment. Report
> Six months after receiving a one-year extension, Atlantic Research Group is still working to meet criteria of a $20,000 incentive grant from the city of Staunton, VA. The city issued the grant in 2007, which assists small and medium-sized biotech and pharma firms with the clinical trial process. For Atlantic Research to receive the funds, the city imposed grant criteria that required the company to create 10 new jobs Staunton-based with average annual salaries of $50,000 or more by June 30, 2010. Article
> Massachusetts has issued a multimillion dollar bond to help a Marblehead-based biotech firm build a new headquarters in Salem, according to MassDevelopment. The bond, to the tune of $2.33 million, along with a $1 million conventional loan, will enable United States Biological Corp. of Marblehead to build an 81,000 square-foot manufacturing and office facility at Salem Industrial Park, according to the statement. Item
> H3 Biomedicine has launched R&D operations in Cambridge, MA. H3 Biomedicine will undertake a comprehensive approach to breakthrough oncology treatments based on two primary principles: the genetics of patients' cancers can reveal drug targets tailored to their cancers, and the advances in modern chemistry enable the discovery of new classes of safe and effective drugs against these targets. H3 release
> Neuralstem has reached a settlement with ReNeuron ending litigation between the parties. The confidential settlement agreement resolves all claims asserted by Neuralstem against ReNeuron in Neuralstem, Inc. v. ReNeuron, Ltd., Case No. CV 08-02168 R (AGRx), which was pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Neuralstem release
And Finally... Call it the Chip Skowron effect. The former FrontPoint hedge fund manager's ties to a huge insider-trading scandal continue to plague his former firm. The $4.5 billion Greenwich, CT, firm was slapped with a lawsuit this month by investors of Human Genome Sciences, the company that Skowron allegedly profited from using confidential information. Federal prosecutors have charged Yves Benhamou, a French doctor and former adviser to Human Genome, with leaking information to a portfolio manager later identified as Skowron, who was let go in December. Item