Overseas trained doctors are most likely to stay in rural Victoria if they are ambivalent about where they want to settle or easily integrate into the community, a Monash University study has found.

Four companies are poised to float on the Australian Stock Exchange in December and January, with at least another two companies waiting in the wings. [ + ]

US venture-capital-backed artificial heart company Heartware is hoping to be the first in what might become a new wave of US firms considering an Australian IPO as an interim financing round, before moving on to a Nasdaq listing. [ + ]

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), has dismayed Australia's agbiotech community by ruling that chickens fed genetically modified grain cannot be labelled GM-free. [ + ]

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), has dismayed Australia's agbiotech community by ruling that chickens fed genetically modified grain cannot be labelled "GM-free". [ + ]

Cryptome (ASX: CRP) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB) to collaborate on the identification of cardiovascular therapeutics. [ + ]

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. [ + ]