MaRS

Solving the mysteries of pet food production

The pet industry is big business. There are over eight million pet cats and dogs in Canada and more than 160 million pets in the US.  Last year, Americans spent over US$45 billion on their pets, including US$18 billion on pet food.

What happens when pet food harms more than it helps?

Some pet foods have been found to be tainted with melamine (commonly used in clear resins and durable plastics) as well other toxins and allergens—some of which may be created during pet food processing.

How can you keep Spot safe?

Enter Larial Proteomics.

Not quite a knockout for biotech

Hotly touted Massachusetts biotech Ironwood Pharmaceuticals succeeded in going public on the NASDAQ this week but failed to rake in the amount of cash that industry pundits had predicted.  The IPO raised $188 million at a price of $11.25 per share.  Not too shabby, but considerably less than the $267 million analysts had envisioned.

Ironwood, which has a Phase III drug (Linoclotide) for irritable bowel syndrome — a large and unsatisfied market — appears to have fallen victim to the weakness in the financial markets triggered by concerns about potential European debt defaults and American unemployment data.

Money for the biotech industry?

BIOTECanada has made further announcements on the financial condition of the Canadian biotechnology industry.

A recent survey indicated that 70% of Canadian biotech companies have at least a year of cash on hand versus a mere 30% in July 2009.  According to the January 25 news release this turnaround was achieved by companies restructuring their operations (read “downsizing”) and increased access to foreign investment (read “fire sale”). With the important proviso that I haven’t seen the underlying survey data, I can’t help but wonder if the upswing in apparent financial viability was driven by closures of less financially fit companies than any genuine positive momentum.

Winning team at BioCamp 2009

Sixty 25- to 35-year-olds from all over the world traveled to Cambridge, MA, to learn, debate and network with leading biotechnology executives. In my wildest dreams, I never would have thought that I’d be attending camp again at this ripe old age… but that’s exactly what I did. On October 26-30, I participated in the Novartis International Biotechnology Leadership Camp—or , as we participants affectionately called it, “BioCamp”.

BioCamp participants were postgraduate students from 27 countries, only three of whom were selected from Canada. Just getting into BioCamp was a challenge in itself: over 3,000 students applied! Most of the participants at this event had competed at a BioCamp in their home country, then been hand-picked by event organizers to participate in the International BioCamp (for example, the European BioCamp).

Minato Mirai, Yokohama, BIO Japan 2009

In October I was in Yokohama to attend BIO Japan 2009 – a major Japanese life sciences partnering event.  This was my second visit to BIO Japan.

The event attracted 15,000 visitors over three days, drawn mostly from major Japanese pharma companies and biotechs and also a sizeable contingent from Western and Asian small-to-medium sized companies and institutions.