Intellectual Property and Lawsuits
Culture Dish has a post on a DNA sequencing technique patent dispute — Enzo biochem claims that they invented the technique for sequencing DNA, though the patent on it was awarded to some scientists at Caltech nearly 25 years ago.
Pharmablogger presents an inside view of a series of 7,000 complaints filed by the State of Massachusetts against a drug company for unspecified illnesses caused by a psychoactive drug.
Marketing
The Pharma Marketing Blog takes a look at sleep drugs and Google adwords. The ephemeral nature of Google’s adwords means that ads in violation of FDA rules are being posted and, more importantly, cannot be reported.
The Register reports on a group of scientists looking to rebrand “cloning” as “somatic cell nuclear transfer.” While this rebranding is more precise than the current use of the word cloning (cloning also applies to manipulations of genes that have nothing to do with making copies of mammals), far fewer people are against it — presumably because they don’t know what it is!
R&D Trends
Chemical Engineering News profiles a trend which has been growing in recent years. Biotechnology companies, once defined by their focus on biologic drugs, are increasingly crossing over into pharma territory and trying to develop small-molecule drugs.