The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has approved an application by Western Australian wheat breeding company Grain Biotech Australia to field-trial two genetically modified salt-tolerant wheat lines. [ + ]

The 25,000 doctors attending the world's largest gastroenterology meeting in Chicago next month will be briefed about a revolution in the detection and diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, engineered by Melbourne's Optiscan (ASX:OIL) and its giant Japanese partner Pentax. [ + ]

Select Vaccines' (ASX:SLT) hepatitis E diagnostics kits have gained CE Mark approval for sale in the European Union. The company will sell the kits from June this year through its licencee, Genelabs [ + ]

Adelaide biopharma GroPep has announced that a Japanese biopharmaceutical company has received regulatory approval in Japan to manufacture a biopharmaceutical product containing one of GroPep's products. [ + ]

Private Singapore natural products company MerLion Pharmaceuticals has sealed a three-year cooperative drug discovery and development collaboration with Japan's Sankyo. [ + ]

Wyeth's first-quarter earnings have risen 44 percent as sales of its vaccine against childhood infections more than doubled and sales of arthritis treatment Enbrel and other prescription drugs rose. [ + ]

Coley Pharmaceutical has filed with regulators to raise up to US$115 million in an initial public offering of common stock. [ + ]

Shares in two of the biotech sector's most troubled companies Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) and Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MBP) rose today by 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, as the companies announced positive news. [ + ]

Melbourne stem cell therapeutics developer Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has received ethics approval to begin a Phase I human trial of its adult stem cell therapy for angina. [ + ]

University of NSW epidemiologists have uncovered evidence for an unexpected upside to allergies -- people who suffer from asthma and hay fever are 50 per cent less likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. [ + ]

Sydney peptide therapeutics developer Peptech (ASX:PTD) has reported "outstanding" results from a trial of an anti-TNF monoclonal antibody (mAb) resurrected from its tumour necrosis factor (TNF) research program of the late 1980s. [ + ]

Sigma-Aldrich has a new identity for its fine chemicals business, SAFC. SAFC will have over 650 of Sigma-Aldrich's 6000 employees dedicated to its success and will embrace the company's recent acquisitions, Ultrafine and Tetrionics.

Melbourne pharma Phosphagenics (ASX:POH) has demonstrated that its patented TPM-01 transdermal delivery system can administer morphine safely and efficiently through the skin, to maintain therapeutic levels of the drug in the serum over a period of at least 48 hours. [ + ]

International proteomics technology and research company Proteome Systems (ASX:PSX) has signed a agreement with life-science research systems company Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) to develop and market an integrated technology package for glycomics, the analysis of glycosylated proteins. [ + ]

After a year scouting for its first deal, private Brisbane biotech Implicit Biosciences is hoping to raise a phoenix from the ashes of a dead US company, Cytran, which went bankrupt in 2002 after the Phase III failure of its lead candidate IM862. [ + ]