Celera announced that it has entered into a two year license agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. Under the agreement, Merck will have access to around ten cancer targets for the development of RNA interference-(RNAi) based therapeutics. These therapeutic targets are over-expressed on the surface of several different tumour cell types and were identified using Celera"s proteomics discovery platform. RNAi-based therapeutics help in selectively catalysing the destruction of the RNA transcribed from an individual gene, thereby enabling a novel approach to discovering drugs with the potential to produce highly specific, potent and long-lasting effects. This new agreement combines the strength of our novel proteomics target discovery and validation capability with Merck"s expertise in developing RNAi based therapeutics, said Steve Ruben, Vice President, Proteomic Research, Celera.

CV Therapeutics, Inc. and Astellas Pharma US, Inc. announced that it has received approval from the US FDA for Lexiscan (regadenoson) injection. It is an A2A adenosine receptor agonist and is administered as a pharmacologic stress agent in radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). The A2A adenosine receptor is the adenosine receptor subtype responsible for coronary vasodilation. Lexicon is delivered as a rapid bolus with no dose adjustment required for body weight. Speaking on this occasion, Louis G. Lange, chairman and chief executive officer, CV Therapeutics, said, Lexiscan represents the second novel chemical entity in cardiovascular medicine that CV Therapeutics has received approval for in just over two years.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited announced that it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi, in the area of New Drug Discovery Research (NDDR). The research will be conducted under the aegis of DBTs major initiative in the area of tuberculosis. The major areas identified in the program include development of diagnostics, vaccines and drugs. Under the agreement, Ranbaxy will develop new drugs using inhibitor designs for novel targets, pathways and proteins. Once a molecule is identified, DBT and Ranbaxy will jointly support the clinical development. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, CEO and MD, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, said, We are pleased to have this alliance with DBT in the area of NDDR and will work towards building a winning model to develop innovative medicines in the area of tuberculosis.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine announced that they have transformed normal skin cells into cancer stem cells, a step that will make these naturally rare cells easier to study. The study demonstrated that cancer stem cells are similar to the stem cells found in embryos and are helpful in forming all tissue types. These findings would be helpful in researching cells as they progress towards becoming cancerous. Speaking on this, Howard Chang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology and senior author of the work, said, Our particular interest is in using this approach to find the mechanism that turns a normal cell into a cancer stem cell.

Suven Life Sciences announced that it has entered into an agreement with VPSCRO, a CRO based in China for conducting clinical trial services in India and China. The agreement brings with it a compressive range of clinical services to the global sponsors with requisite infrastructure as well as network of investigstors in India and China by levereging their expertise for the conduct of clinical research. Speaking on this, Venkat Jasti, CEO, Suven Life Sciences,said, We are very enthusiastic with the many opportunities to make this alliance a success not only for ACT and VPSCRO, bur also to our global sponsors around the world.