Science announced the results of its annual Top Employers survey. After placing second last year, Genentech once again claimed the top spot for the sixth year. Missouri-based Monsanto climbed six spots to come in at number two this year, with Genzyme rounding out the top three. The annual web-based survey, now in its seventh year, polls [...]

Jerini and Shire have reviewed Jerini's assets and have elected to divest Jerini Ophthalmic, JPT Peptide Technologies and Jerini's pre-clinical projects. Jerini will explore options to maximize benefits for for the company from the sale of these assets. The companies will now focus on icatibant (Firazyr), a treatment for hereditary [...]

San Diego-based Nventa Biopharmaceuticals is whacking eight of its 13 staffers as it ratchets back its expenses and stays focused on advancing its lead therapies. Out the door go Richard B. Lai Fatt, Ph.D., vice president of corporate development, and David Duncan, Jr., vice president of finance. It's all part [...]

The Hartford Courant takes a close look at Boehringer Ingelheim's R&D work underway in Connecticut. While other Big Pharma companies have been cutting R&D efforts, Boehringer has been beefing up its research staff every year over the past three years. It currently has 1,300 staffers working in the state, and [...]

Shortly after announcing positive data for Fibrin Pad, an experimental product for managing bleeding, Omrix said that it suspended the Phase II clinical trial "to investigate an incident of post-operative bleeding." The company says it will provide an update once additional information is available. Omrix release[...]

> The UK's Archimedes Pharma is reporting positive late-stage data for its fentanyl citrate nasal spray, developed to provide fast, effective and convenient treatment for breakthrough cancer pain. Researchers said that NasalFent hit its primary endpoint. Patients treated with NasalFent showed a statistically significant improvement in summary of pain intensity [...]

Pfizer has announced a major realignment of its business, replacing its geographic divisions with new units focused on primary care, specialty care and operations in emerging markets. These new units, which start up at the beginning of next year, will have control over drug development, strategic planning and marketing. Research [...]

Cut off from raising funds by a roiled public market, MonoGen announced that it is halting commercial operations and laying off 75 percent of its work force. Piper Jaffray has been brought in to assess the remaining financial alternatives for the diagnostics company. "It is with great disappointment that we [...]

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals' subsidiary Biovest International todayannounced positive results from its Phase 3 Fast-Tracked clinical trial of BiovaxID for the treatment of indolent follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The trials were halted in June upon analyses by the data monitoring board that revealed a significant survival rate for BiovaxID patients, versus the control [...]

Clean tech looks like it could be the next big thing--for biotech workers. The two industries don't seem to have much in common, but BusinessWeek reports that a growing number of seasoned biotech veterans are leaving the biopharma industry to explore the growing clean tech field. Clean tech explores a variety of [...]

Shares of Oxford BioMedica jumped on the news that it's been conducting positive talks with the FDA on advancing clinical research on the renal cancer drug TroVax. An independent monitoring board had concluded last summer that TroVax--which is partnered with Sanofi-Aventis--would not meet its primary endpoint in a late-stage trial. [...]

France Biotech, the country's life sciences association, has released its report detailing the results of its annual survey. The trends? According to survey results, we can expect several deals or mergers between French biotechs and pharma companies within the coming months. And despite the global financial crisis, industry execs are [...]

The emergency $700 billion bailout bill includes some good news for biopharma companies. Congress extended the research and development tax credit by two years. The credit had expired at the end of last year. "In today's challenging economic environment, R&D is a critical catalyst for American innovation, economic growth, and job [...]

Crucell has nailed a $70 million contract from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop new vaccines to combat the Ebola and Marburg viruses. That contract will be worth $30 million initially with another $40 million in options. "We are grateful to the NIAID/NIH for this award, [...]

Biogen Idec may join the exodus of biotech companies leaving Cambridge, MA and move its corporate HQ on out to the suburbs. CEO Jim Mullen (photo) says there's a pretty simple reason why the biotech giant may relocate to Weston: money. "It's sort of the natural evolution of these things," Biogen [...]

Genentech is teaming up with Roche and its subsidiary GlycArt to develop GlycArt's GA101 molecule, a humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody being developed as a treatment for hematological malignancies and other oncology related B-cell disorders like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The therapy is currently in Phase I/II clinical trials for CD-20 positive B-cell [...]

Drug researcher and blogger Derek Lowe has some interesting thoughts on the future of drug discovery. With the easiest types of research projects headed overseas, U.S. researchers will be left to deal with the toughest jobs. And those jobs are increasingly being handled by smaller, risk-taking discovery companies. Big Pharma, [...]

Anyone looking for signs of how the financial crisis can affect the biopharma industry should check out the interview Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan (photo) gave to the Wall Street Journal. The company is already seeing sales of some of its biggest sellers crimped by European governments adamant about finding ways [...]

Last week, I attended Pennsylvania BIO's CEO Roundtable event, where three local CEOs spoke to a room packed with the biotech industry's rank-and-file. The most notable speaker was Dr. Frank Baldino, Jr. (left), chairman and CEO of Cephalon. Co-founded by Baldino, Cephalon is an international biopharmaceutical company with over 20 years of [...]

ImClone was not bluffing after all. The company rejected both of Bristol-Myers Squibb's offers as "inadequate" and "absurd," with Imclone's CEO Carl Icahn and BMS Jim CEO Cornelius exchanging harsh words in between. ImClone insisted it had another suitor in the wings with a much better offer. Now the news is [...]

Roche is reassuring everyone that despite all the market turmoil that has occurred worldwide in recent weeks, it's still on track to raise the $43.7 billion it's bid to acquire all the outstanding shares of Genentech. And that's a major issue for the investment field, which sees that deal as a [...]

ImClone says that it expects a mystery bidder to either reject a takeover move or formally offer $6.1 billion for the biotech company. And ImClone says it will name the bidder one way or the other. In a dig at Bristol-Myers, ImClone says that a competing offer won't be contingent on [...]