Biotech Roundup: Monday, April 27

We got a bit sidetrack last week with Earth Day festivities, but today the biotech roundup is back! As always we encourage you to check out these posts and join the conversation.

BIOTECH FUNDING GETS SUPPORT IN SENATE – Over the weekend, Senator Arlen Specter, who could prove to be a key vote in the healthcare reform debate, proposed the creation of a new agency to help struggling biotech companies. Details from Reuters, via the Virginia Bioscience Blog:

Senator Arlen Specter said the new agency could be important as Democrats push a health plan that aims to rein in soaring costs and to provide health coverage for an estimated 46 million uninsured Americans.

“I believe that we can live not only longer lives, but healthier lives, by harnessing and applying the genius of our biomedical research community and getting about the task of accelerating cures,” Specter said in remarks prepared for a Chicago speech to physicians and researchers.

Specter, who has survived two bouts of cancer, proposed a new agency known as the Cures Acceleration Network that would award grants to cash-strapped biotech companies to help them develop new treatments.

He said these companies are having difficulty tapping into private capital and a number have cut or put on hold important drug development programs that could provide new treatments for cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and other diseases.

“Without adequate funding, these companies will be unable to take these products to the development state, the basic research done by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) will be lost, and many patients will die waiting for drugs and devices to give them a better quality of life,” Specter said.

COMBATTING SWINE FLU – Biotech companies are on standby and ready to respond quickly should swine flu develop into a pandemic.

Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Relenza, or zanamivir, are both recommended drugs for seasonal flu and have been shown to work against viral samples of the new disease…

Roche said it has a stockpile of 3 million packages of Tamiflu ready for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO), half held in the United States and half in Switzerland.

“So far the WHO has not requested we deploy this stockpile. Of course, as soon as the WHO requires that we deploy it we will do so,” said Roche spokeswoman Claudia Schmitt.

Both Roche and Glaxo said they were in contact with the WHO, U.S. authorities and the government in Mexico.

For more info, AgWired has pulled together some helpful links to track news from CDC and others.

CA LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARD HURTS BIOFUEL DEVELOPMENT – California passed a Low Carbon Fuel Standard on Friday with the aim of mitigating the impact of transportation on climate change. Unfortunately, the measure is likely to hinder the development of low carbon biofuels. BIO Executive Vice President Brent Erickson weighed in on the news:

“California’s regulation assigns to both conventional and advanced biofuels responsibility for international land use changes – a source of greenhouse gas emissions as large as those from fossil fuels for transportation. The model incorporated in California’s regulations to measure these emissions uses highly uncertain assumptions and may in fact be fundamentally flawed by its assumptions.”

“BIO has proposed to California’s Air Resources Board that it maintain flexibility in its regulations to consider alternate models in the future that can more accurately measure land use change. In its official comments on the regulation, BIO references a simple dynamic model currently under development for directly accounting for land use change. BIO believes that a rigorous scientific and economic analysis will demonstrate that U.S. biofuels can make a positive contribution to the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuels and overall greenhouse gas emissions.”

“California is setting a precedent for the United States and possibly other countries with the adoption of this rule. It is imperative that they consider further development and refinement of the study of indirect land use change.”

The BIOConversion Blog has a great response to the new standard as well as a list of misleading articles that have been published on the topic and urges readers to respond.

GATES FOUNDATION AND AGRICULTURAL BIOTECH – GMO Pundit has an interesting post about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s interest in projects that use agricultural biotech to combat world hunger:

Unlike the majority of development charities, the Gates Foundation is not afraid to include cutting edge technologies to address pressing problems. This is not to say that there is not a place for small-scale improvements to current farming practices. Better cultivation techniques and improved irrigation have a role to play, but so does a search for more radical solutions to malnourishment and the lack of food security.

This approach starts from the principle that healthy, well-fed people are able to move on from subsistence farming and lift themselves out of poverty. Regular crop surpluses and the scope to grow cash crops not only makes the lives of whole families better, but enable children to go to school, which greatly improves their prospects as adults.

BIOTECH FUELS GEORGIA’S ECONOMY – Finally, an update from an emerging biotech hub. Atlanta Business Chronicle reports on a new report showing that the state’s life sciences industry contributed $16 billion in statewide economic impact and generated more than 62,000 jobs in 2007. However, the report argues that continued growth is threatened by lack of financing and experienced managers.

The dearth of funding and experienced managers can be linked to a common issue — Georgia’s lack of a track record of major life sciences successes, said Lee Herron, vice president of commercialization at the Georgia Research Alliance.

Georgia’s relatively young life sciences industry has not produced blockbusters like Boston’s Genzyme Corp. or South San Francisco’s Genentech Inc.

Recruiting experienced talent to Georgia is a challenge in the absence of a major life sciences cluster.

It’s risky for a life sciences CEO to uproot his family and move to Georgia, Herron said, because if the job doesn’t work out, the executive has few other employment options in the area.