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pharmafile | November 9, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
BioView and Transgenomic sign distribution agreement
BioView has licensed Transgenomic to distribute its family of scanning and analysis workstations in selected western European countries and Scandinavia.
Transgenomic's European sales and support organization will market, sell and service the instruments. BioView's products include the Duet, Allegro and Accord automated workstations for the scanning and classification of cells via fluorescence in-situ hybridization and brightlight microscopy.
The BioView products are intended for in-vitro diagnostic use as an aiding tool to the pathologist in the detection, classification and counting of cells of interest based on color, intensity, size, pattern and shape.
Craig Tuttle, president and CEO of Transgenomic, said: "We are very excited to add BioView's world-leading imaging platforms to our cytogenetics portfolio of products.
These sophisticated imaging systems will complement our Hanabi metaphase chromosome harvester and spreader products and further expand our sales and service reach into cytogenetics and pathology laboratories across Europe."
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Locus and Ono sign drug discovery agreement
Locus Pharmaceuticals has entered into a second research agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical to apply its proprietary computational technologies and capabilities in chemistry, biology and crystallography to design and develop IND-directed preclinical drug candidates for Ono. The molecular target is a protein kinase newly selected by Ono. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In July, 2006, Ono and Locus entered into a drug discovery agreement targeting a kinase selected by Ono with the goal of identifying small molecule inhibitors of the targeted kinase. Based on the progress achieved in the ongoing collaboration and Ono's appreciation of Locus' unique capabilities in its integrated drug discovery approach, Ono decided to start a second collaboration with Locus on a newly selected kinase.
Joseph Reiser, president and CEO of Locus, said: "We are pleased with the progress of our existing Ono collaboration and are strongly encouraged by the confidence expressed by Ono to initiate a second discovery program. Having now applied our leading computational technology to many drug discovery targets including kinases, we enter this new collaboration with increased confidence to deliver strong results."
Kazuhito Kawabata, executive director of strategic alliance headquarters, Ono, said: "We highly appreciate the competitive Locus infrastructure for drug discovery which effectively integrates their proprietary computational approaches. We are glad to expand our collaboration and look forward to realizing high value drug candidates."
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Schering-Plough says court finds no liability for Warrick unit
Healthcare company Schering-Plough has reported that the District Court of Massachusetts has found no liability for Warrick Pharmaceuticals, its generic subsidiary, in a class action lawsuit involving several pharmaceutical companies and the setting of average wholesale prices for prescription products.
The court, in a modification of its prior opinion, ruled that Warrick's average wholesale prices (AWPs) had no effect on medicare reimbursement and resulted in no damages to class plaintiffs. In June 2007, the court had issued favorable rulings for the company and dismissed all claims relating to Schering-Plough's branded pharmaceutical products but found limited liability against Warrick with respect to one form of a generic product, albuterol sulfate solution, in the years 1998 and 1999. The court's latest ruling in favor of the company reverses that finding of limited liability.
Fred Hassan, Schering-Plough chairman and CEO, said: "As we move forward with building a company that can deliver sustainable high performance, we are gratified to put another issue from Schering-Plough's past behind us."
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Schering-Plough Corp.-Detailed Product Pipeline
Siemens acquires Dade Behring Holdings
Siemens has successfully completed the acquisition of US-based laboratory diagnostics firm Dade Behring Holdings.
Siemens says it can now can offer its customers a comprehensive healthcare solutions' portfolio, which brings together the entire medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics and clinical information technology (IT) value chain under one roof.
Erich Reinhardt, president and CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions, said: "The acquisition of Dade Behring, which holds a strong position in clinical chemistry, ideally complements our acquisitions of diagnostic products and Bayer Diagnostics. The implementation of integrated IT and clinical solutions from Siemens will help improve workflow efficiency throughout the healthcare enterprise, from admissions and administration, to the laboratory and the radiology department. This will enable our customers to increase the quality of patient care while simultaneously reducing costs."
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