Melbourne-based biotech managed investment group EQiTX (ASX: EQX) will ask shareholders to approve a AUD$1.8 million capital raising to provide working capital for its two projects ZingoTX and VacTX. [ + ]

A treatment for the age-old scourge of cholera and perhaps a whole new type of antibiotic medicine may emerge from chemicals discovered in an Australian seaweed, new research suggests.

Peptech (ASX:PTD) is begrudgingly sharing the booty from its recent legal win, announcing today it would 'reward' shareholders with a dividend of 8 cents per share. [ + ]

Australian immunodiagnostics company Cellestis (ASX:CST) has received approval from the FDA for its second generation QuantiFERON-TB Gold tuberculosis diagnostic test. [ + ]

Acrux (ASX:ACR) CEO Igor Gonda says the failure of Proctor and Gamble (P&G) to gain approval from an FDA advisory panel for its testosterone patch to treat low libido in surgically menopausal women presents a good opportunity for Acrux and its US development partner Vivus to catch up. [ + ]

Meditech Research (ASX:MTR) has commenced the second stage of its Phase II trial of HyCAMP, its proprietary formulation of chemotherapeutic drug irinotecan in combination with hyaluronic acid. [ + ]

Queensland researchers have made a discovery that could transform the way psychiatrists prescribe anti-psychotic drugs for schizophrenia -- and possibly, for other neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression. [ + ]

Federal education, training and science minister Brendan Nelson has named Dr Jade Sharples as his new science advisor. [ + ]

Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL), once the great hope of the Australian biotech sector, has set a new course towards drug discovery and diagnostics, and away from its traditional identity as an instrument manufacturer -- and is considering selling sections of its business, as well as buying into a drug discovery play, as it changes focus. [ + ]

Neill Colledge, the senior portfolio manager and head of research for domestic equities at Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), has replaced Kathryn Radford as CEO of the AUD$100 million Queensland BioCapital Funds (QBF). [ + ]

Brisbane-based gene therapy company Benitec (ASX:BLT) will continue to defend itself against what it today described as "baseless attacks" on its patent position by US company Nucleonics. [ + ]

The FDA has said it is unclear whether a testosterone patch for boosting sexual desire in women, being developed by Proctor & Gamble, produced meaningful benefit or was safe over the long term. Reviewers were set to ask an advisory panel if more safety studies are needed before approval of the patch, called Intrinsa, which is being developed with Watson Pharmaceuticals. [ + ]

Open innovation -- the concept that ideas and technology have to flow both into and out of companies in order to maximise the development and commercialisation of innovative new products and services -- needs to be embraced by Australian companies both in the biotech sector and other industries, according to visiting academic Prof Hank Chesbrough. [ + ]

The federal government has accepted the recommendations of the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property, maintaining the status quo and continuing to exclude the patenting of plants, animals and the biological processes involved in their generation. [ + ]

If all the venture capital funds targeting the biotech sector get up and running, next year the Australian biotech industry will have access to more early-stage funding than ever before. [ + ]