The Ministry of Knowledge Economy has announced three new “growth engines” for the nation’s economy: green technology, “high-technology industrial convergence” and “valued-added industries.” The Ministry will work to attract KRW 90.5 trillion ($66.9 billion) in private funding by 2013 for 10 projects. The government will contribute KRW 7.3 trillion to the projects, as well as […]

Venlo, The Netherlands 1/22/09—Corbett, QIAGEN, ITF Labortechnik and Applied Biosystems have settled their disputes concerning the infringement by Corbett’s Rotor-Gene Real-Time PCR-Cyclers of Applied Biosystems’ Real-Time Thermal Cycler Instrument patents. Corbett, which was acquired by QIAGEN last year (see IBO 7/15/08), has entered into an agreement to license certain technology from Applied Biosystems related to […]

China has announced a pilot program for the reform of public hospitals. Among the targets of the plan is hospital infrastructure. Over the next three years, the government will fund the construction of 2,000 hospitals in the country’s 1,600 counties in an effort to allocate more resources to rural health care. The plan will also […]

Company Announcements Olink AB in partnership with scientists from Uppsala University formed Q-linea AB to develop biosensors for the detection of biological warfare agents. Diversified Opportunities, an over-the-counter listed, shell company, acquired QRSciences’ US subsidiary and the electronic imaging firm Spectrum San Diego, which was partially owned by QRSciences. QRSciences agreed to distribute GE Security’s […]

The European Parliament has approved legislation regulating the use of pesticides. The law bans certain highly toxic chemicals in pesticides and creates criteria for the use of other substances. The EU will create a list of approved “active substances,” consisting of chemicals that can be used in pesticides. Based on an assessment by the Swedish […]

Company Announcements Empire Genomics will develop locus-specific DNA probes for One Cell Systems for slide-based FISH applications. Empire will also comarket One Cell’s synthetic oligonucleotide probes for chromosome enumeration. In November 2008, QIAGEN licensed certain methylation technologies from OncoMethylome Sciences for use in its EpiTect product line. Five new members joined the RNAi Global Initiative, […]

Palo Alto, CA 1/16/09—Varian has announced that its expects fiscal year 2009 first-quarter sales, for the quarter ended January 2, to be $205–$210 million, compared to revenues of $237.4 million for the same period a year ago. “Although we entered the first quarter with a strong backlog for these products and saw solid orders during […]

Marlborough, MA 1/26/09; San Diego, CA and Ann Arbor, MI 1/26/09; San Diego, CA 1/27/08; San Diego, CA 1/28/09—Sequenom has terminated its bid for diagnostics firm EXACT Sciences (see IBO 1/15/09), following Genzyme’s acquisition of certain intellectual property assets held by EXACT related to the fields of prenatal and reproductive health and three million shares […]