IMS Health forecasts the global pharmaceutical market to grow 2.5%–3.5% in 2009, excluding currency effects, to more than $750 billion. This is down from the previous estimate of 4.5%–5.5% growth (see IBO 10/31/08). Compound annual growth for 2009 through 2013 is estimated to be 3%–6%. IMS observed that consumers are less likely to start new […]

Since 2006, the Japanese government has steadily invested in neuroscience research. On an annual basis, the government provides ¥30 billion ($290 million) to brain science, or 7% of its budget for the life sciences. Efforts include the formation by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Council for Science of a Brain Science […]

The University of Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Research Center are set to merge following final government approval this summer. The new entity will be named the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and will be the largest research center in Germany. The KIT will include Europe’s largest center for energy research, with expertise in nanoscale and […]

Microfluidics, or lab-on-a-chip systems, have been somewhat pigeonholed as being a technology for capillary electrophoresis, particularly with the success of the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer and Caliper Life Sciences’ LabChip products. However, the use of microfluidic technology in LC has grown rapidly during the past several years. Agilent introduced the first chip-based LC/MS system in 2005, […]

Company Announcements Chromatide announced further investments by Enterprise Ventures and Alliance Fund Managers. GE Healthcare is collaborating with Celestial Biologicals to set up India’s first GMP-compliant fully integrated chromatography-based plasma fractionation facility. The facility is based in Ahmedabad. Agilent is providing technical support for the development of Aurora SFC Systems’ Fusion A5, which converts HPLC […]

Company Announcements Radleys appointed Heidolph Brinkmann as the exclusive North American distributor for its chemistry apparatus. Radleys has more than 7,000 systems installed worldwide. In February, MultiSynTech GmbH granted Biotage AB distribution rights to its peptide synthesis systems. The companies will also jointly develop a new microwave-aided peptide synthesis system. Italian contract research organization EspiKem, […]

Company Announcements Caprotec bioanalytics GmbH named Funakoshi as the exclusive distributor of its research products in Japan. Agilent announced in February that it will exclusively distribute and provide marketing and support for Protein Discovery’s PPS Silent Surfactant, an acid-cleavable, zwitterionic detergent for sample preparation prior to MS. In February, OriGene Technologies announced that it raised […]