Hip replacement specialist Portland Orthopaedics (ASX:PLD) has listed on the ASX today at AUD$0.28, three cents above its issue price of $0.25. [ + ]

The pharmaceutical industry should fight a major battle to prolong patent protection and encourage real innovation and discovery, a leading pharmacologist told a Melbourne audience last week. [ + ]

The recommendations from the independent stem cell legislation review committee chaired by former Federal Court judge John Lockhart have been welcomed by many of Australia's stem cell research scientists as well as biotechnology and patient advocacy groups. [ + ]

The independent stem cell legislation review committee chaired by former Federal Court judge John Lockhart has given its support for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes known as therapeutic cloning. [ + ]

ASX-listed, Singapore-based Rockeby Biomed (ASX:RBY) has said it might break even in the year ending June 2007, thanks to its new bird flu test kits. [ + ]

Five years after founding Sydney-based biomaterials company Avastra (ASX:AVS), managing director Paul Ralph has resigned. [ + ]

Epichem, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PharmAust (ASX:PAA), along with Murdoch University and Monash University's Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation, have been offered up to AUD$480,000 from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI). [ + ]

Perth agbiotech company Grain Biotech Australia harvested its first trial crop of genetically modified, salt-tolerant wheat this month, grown in salt-affected farmland near Corrigin, in Western Australia. [ + ]

The Commonwealth government has confirmed that it will add 1.8 million courses of Relenza to the National Medical Stockpile in preparation for a possible influenza pandemic. [ + ]

Adelaide-based biotech GroPep (ASX:GRO) has completed the manufacture of two vaccine antigens for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI). [ + ]

Sydney-based drug developer Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS, Nasdaq:PXSL) has begun the dosing phase of its phase II clinical trial in patients with cystic fibrosis. [ + ]

Cancer drug developer Novogen (ASX:NRT, NASDAQ:NVGN) has concluded its investigation into the reasons why there was an overwhelming majority of proxies against the company's remuneration report. [ + ]

Donald Home has resigned as CEO and managing director of Brisbane-based Agenix (ASX:AGX, NASDAQ:OTC:AGXLY) after four and a half years with the company. [ + ]

CogState (ASX:CGS) has signed an agreement with Pfizer worth up to AUD$1.28 million over three years to support the development of the Melbourne-based company's cognitive test portfolio. [ + ]

Sydney antimicrobial developer Biosignal (ASX:BOS) has been awarded a AUD$1.5 million Commonwealth government grant to develop new antibacterial coatings for medical implants and devices. [ + ]