Upcoming moves by the FDA could spur a number of pharmacogenomic studies for warfarin and eventually bring pharmacogenomic tests into the mainstream. The Food and Drug Administration is considering changes to the label of warfarin, a popular anticoagulant, that warn consumers of the drug’s varying effects on people depending on their genotypes. While there are […]

The Indian government released its fiscal 2007–08 (starting April 1) budget on February 28. The budget contained favorable news for instrument companies and their customers. The annual budget for the Ministry of Science and Technology rose 46% to Rs3,271 ($74.0 million). Within the Ministry, the Department of Science and Technology received a 58% increase in […]

Company Announcements In January, eGene entered into a distribution agreement with Fisher Scientific Canada for the HAD-GT12 system. eGene entered into a three-year distribution agreement with Gene Company for China. Under a value-added reseller agreement, Picometrics SA will provide Agilent Technology’s capillary electrophoresis system coupled with its laser induced fluorescence detector. In February, Advanced Analytical […]

In February, the Chinese government admitted that the country did not achieve its emission reduction goals in 2006. As part of a long-range plan to lower chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur dioxide emissions by 10% from 2006 to 2010, the goal for 2006 was to lower COD and sulfur dioxide emissions by 2%. But, […]

Public funding sources in the EU and Australia are establishing programs to assist biotechnology projects that are trying to negotiate the so-called “valley of death”—the funding gap that lies between academic grants and industrial licensing or venture capital backing. The European Investment Fund entered into a €8 million ($10.6 million) partnership with Belgium’s University of […]

Atomic Spectroscopy Bruker AXS, following the acquisition of Quantron (see IBO 9/15/06), released “Brukerized” versions of Quantron’s arc-spark instruments around the first of the year. The Q6 Columbus is a laboratory system, as is the Q8 Magellan, which is priced at about $65,000. The Q8 Coronado (based on the Magellan) is an automated system for […]

IonSense named KR Analytical as the European distributor for its DART MS ion source in November 2006. Bruker Daltonics and HealthLinx will file a joint patent cooperation treaty for the biomarker candidates for pregnancy complications discovered under their existing collaboration. Bruker Daltonics retains marketing rights to the blood test in Europe, UK, Africa and South […]

Fourth quarter 2006 IBO Life Science Index sales rose 8.7% to $2,124 million. Operating profit for the same period gained 2.8% to $343 million, a steep decline from the previous quarter’s operating profit growth of 19%. Operating margin slipped 110 basis points from 17.2% to 16.1% of revenues. Year-over-year Life Science Index sales increased 7.7% […]

London, England 3/12/07—Linde has sold BOC Edwards’s vacuum and semiconductor businesses to private equity firm CCMP Capital for €685 million ($901.1 million). BOC Edwards is a supplier of vacuum systems to analytical instrumentation companies, among other industries. “This is the start of a new independent era for BOC Edwards in which we can focus on […]