Source:Xconomy

We're at the end of one of the most challenging years in recent memory for life sciences companies. However, a broad transformation is under way in the industry, and profitable new opportunities are on the near-term horizon. From my perspective, there are three major trends worth considering and focusing on as the new year unfolds.

-Big Pharma Reaches Out to Biotech for Pipeline-and Deals

For strategic reasons, large pharmaceuticals continue to look outside their walls for much-needed new pipelines-largely because their own are drying up and generics are making increasing inroads. I noted this trend last spring, but now it's really playing out, with serious and significant ramifications.

In an effort to expand product portfolios, bring new products to market sooner, and hasten a return on investment, big pharma is aggressively looking to collaborate with biotech on a number of levels in the hope that this will provide them access to innovative technologies. Eli Lilly, for example, recently joined with technology companies and universities and opened up a large R&D center in San Diego to identify and capture innovative biologics that have commercial promise. To read more, click here.

Source: Xconomy

Phase Forward has been one of the success stories in the Route 128 tech cluster during the past decade, and has grown to be one of the largest health IT companies in Massachusetts. But a big question about the firm on Wall Street is how-or whether-its growth spurt will continue.

The Waltham, MA-based firm (NASDAQ:PFWD) has been a pioneer in getting drug companies to switch from paper records to software for collecting and managing data in clinical trials. After several years of rapid adoption of the technology, the majority of drug studies now use such software, prompting Phase Forward to seek new ways of making money in the field of clinical development.

Bob Weiler, the company's chairman and CEO, says his company's strategy to keep growing has been to build up a host of software products to automate all manner of data-related activities-from the very early stages of clinical development to the safety studies that drug companies conduct after the FDA approves their products. Pharmaceutical firms typically use many pieces of software from different companies to manage the various aspects of clinical research, and Phase Forward aims to provide these companies with one-stop shopping and what it calls an integrated clinical research suite. This will save pharmas money on system upkeep and integration, the CEO says. To read more, click here.

Source: Biophotonics.com

The University of California, San Francisco, has given Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH a license to commercialize a superresolution microscopy technique developed by scientists at the university. Called structured illumination microscopy, the method combines a special illumination pattern with state-of-the-art computational image analysis to produce images with up to double the resolution in all three spatial directions in comparison to those taken with conventional microscopes. The agreement grants the company the right to integrate the technique into its microscope systems

Source:photonics.com

II-VI Inc. announced today it is withdrawing its proposal to acquire optical metrology instruments maker Zygo Corp. for $10 per share, three weeks after Zygo's board unanimously rejected the offer.

Laser-optics materials maker II-VI presented the acquisition offer to Zygo on Jan. 5. At the time, it represented a 46 percent premium over the 30-day trading average of Zygo's shares, II-VI said. On Feb. 16 Zygo's board rejected the offer, saying it had only begun to see the benefits of recent initiatives to refocus on its core optical and metrology markets, and that its new CEO, Dr. Chris L. Koliopoulos, had only started on the job in January. (See Zygo Board Rejects II-VI Offer)

"We were surprised and disappointed that, despite the fact that our offer was at a substantial premium and that we were willing to permit each shareholder to opt for either cash or II-VI stock, it was dismissed without giving us the opportunity to discuss its merits directly with Zygo's board of directors," said II-VI President and CEO Francis J. Kramer. "We feel Zygo is a strong fit with II-VI's strategic plans and growth initiatives and strongly believe that the Zygo shareholders, customers and employees could have benefited from a combination with II-VI. Given the reluctance of Zygo's board of directors to share with us the prospects of their strategic plan for creating shareholder value and their unwillingness to even enter into discussions with us regarding our proposal, we have decided to withdraw our offer for Zygo and instead focus on our existing businesses and other strategic opportunities available to II-VI."

Source: XconomyHIV has taught the pharmaceutical industry that the best way to fight an infectious virus that resists a single drug is to make a cocktail that attacks the virus in more than one way. Vertex Pharmaceuticals and its competitors are now following a similar formula with new therapies for hepatitis C.

Vertex, the Cambridge, MA-based company with operations in San Diego, offered a glimpse last week into its strategy for a two-drug combo that could significantly change hepatitis C treatment. If the company has mapped this out correctly, it could rid people of the virus while letting them ditch the detested standard therapies that force them to endure months of flu-like symptoms. I followed up last Friday to learn more from a conversation with Vertex's chief medical officer, Bob Kauffman.

The big story from the past couple years at Vertex (NASDAQ: VRTX) is the development of its first-in-class protease inhibitor drug called telaprevir. This oral pill, taken two or three times a day, must be combined with the pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin. It has excited researchers because it has been able to double the cure rate while shortening the course of therapy by half. That means that many more of 170 million people worldwide with chronic hepatitis C liver infections will be likely to seek out treatment, and be able to stand up to the side effects of standard therapy over a shorter period of time. If the ongoing clinical trials to test this idea are successful this year, Vertex could bring telaprevir to the market in 2011. U.S. sales alone could amount to more than $2 billion after a couple years, researchers say. Read more here

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

For start-ups that harness the energy of the sun, 2010 looks to be a promising year.

In The Wall Street Journal's first survey of venture-backed clean technology companies, three makers of solar cells came out on top: Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif.; Suniva Inc. of Norcross, Ga.; and eSolar Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. The rankings, announced Thursday at the Journal's ECO:Nomics Executive Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., seek to identify those green companies that have the capital, executive experience and investor know-how to succeed in an increasingly crowded field. Read more here.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Just when it seemed America was emerging from the recession, Wall Street swooned again as January segued into February. But Silicon Valley's startup economy shifted into a higher gear. Read more here. 

Source: Reuters.com

The Federal Communications Commission's plan to boost Americans' access to the Internet will propose up to $25 billion in new federal spending, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Read more here.

Source: Information WeekNovell and the Cloud Security Alliance have announced a vendor-neutral "Trusted Cloud Initiative" for developing standards and certification of cloud security, compliance, identity management and other best practices.

While cloud computing is a popular topic, it lacks a set of well-defined terms and standards that tell prospective users concrete information about the environment they're about to adopt.

Businesses considering adopting cloud computing lack assurances they will be able to continue to control their data, enforce best practices and guarantee security, said Jim Reavis, executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance Monday.

The Cloud Security Alliance is a group of consultants, vendors, and cloud users that formed a non-profit group at the end of 2008 to address the lack of standards for cloud computing.

If a prospective cloud user and a vendor talk about level three security in the cloud, one may have a completely different idea of what the other is saying. There are no defined levels of security in cloud computing, and it's difficult to get a discussion going when one party can't be sure of the terms that the other is using. The Trusted Cloud Initiative is aimed in part at creating a shared set of standards that can be verified by neutral third parties.

"By building a consensus security reference guide and certification roadmap, we are creating common ground for both enterprises and cloud providers, and expect to accelerate cloud adoption," said Alan Boehme, senior VP IT strategy and enterprise architecture at ING Americas, a branch of the Dutch insurance conglomerate, in Monday's announcement. Boehme is a member of the board of directors of the Cloud Security Alliance. Read more here

Source: UPI.comMELBOURNE, March 1 (UPI) -- Australian biomedical scientists report they have identified a new way to treat prostate cancer.

Researchers at the Monash University in Melbourne used a drug compound to selectively activate the prostate's beta estrogen receptor cells. Study co-author Gail Risbridger says this has the effect of targeting for cell death a small but important population of cells in the prostate cancer tumor that are often resistant to conventional therapy and can lead to recurrent incurable disease.

"It is a significant piece of the puzzle that will help medical research in this field -- an achievement that could eventually enhance treatment options for patients around the world with advanced prostate cancer," Risbridger said in a statement. Read more here