ImmunoSolv merges to avoid ‘one trick pony’ syndrome

Edinburgh, Scotland-based ImmunoSolv is merging with Aberdeen's Grampian BioConsultants, combining the two companies' technical know-how to further explore the biology of cell death. ImmunoSolv also announced that it has raised £500,000 from Grampian BioPartners, the Scottish Enterprise Scottish Co-Investment Fund and the University of Edinburgh. The new company will operate under the ImmunoSolv name, combining a complementary "portfolio of immunology and...

NIH chief lobbies for $500M fund to back clinical trials

NIH chief Francis Collins (photo) is lobbying Congress to set aside a half-billion dollar fund that will give start-up biotechs up to $15 million to bankroll clinical trials for new drugs that treat neglected diseases. The initiative marks a strategic shift for the NIH, which has played a big role sponsoring the academic research that often winds up in developers' hands. "We have the chance now to make progress in therapeutics that we really could not have done five or six years ago; we just...