Adelaide biotech GroPep (ASX:GRO) expects to deliver a net profit after tax of approximately $1 million for the six months to 31 December 2004 following sales growth of its cell culture products. Net profit for the full year 2004/05 is expected to be at least the $1.5 million. [ + ]

Sydney's Proteome Systems (ASX:PXL) is slimming down and adopting a more muscular sales and marketing strategy for its proteomics technology suite in the northern hemisphere. [ + ]

The US Food and Drug Administration has said that Senate testimony by a veteran FDA researcher regarding safety risks for five drugs does not reflect the views of the agency. [ + ]

Biotechnology companies Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals have announced that US regulators have approved their drug Tarceva for treating the most common form of lung cancer. [ + ]

Sydney drug re-engineering company Eiffel Technologies (ASX:EIF) been signed by a US-based specialty pharmaceutical company to experimentally reformulate a popular asthma drug to improve its activity. [ + ]

Melbourne biotech, CogState, has announced it has been awarded a major federal government grant for further development into its novel drug treatment for Parkinson's Disease.

The Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF) has teamed up with Californian proteomics company LumiCyte (LCI) to further develop LCI's recently launched STS biochip platform. [ + ]

Acrux (ASX:ACR) has received a US$250,000 milestone payment from its partner Vivus triggered by the granting of a US patent extending the coverage of its proprietary transdermal drug delivery system. [ + ]

Melbourne drug development company Iliad Chemicals will collaborate with scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) on the development of a new class of compounds with the potential to treat multiple sclerosis. [ + ]

In a sign that life science-focussed VC activity may be picking up, Melbourne-based venture capital firm Starfish Ventures has closed its AUD$123 million Starfish Technology Fund I. [ + ]

VPAC, in collaboration with BioMelbourne Network and the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, has launched the BioPlatform.

Information-based medicine is reaching mainstream medical practice faster than expected, according to Dr Joseph Jasinski, the program director of IBM's Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute. [ + ]

A report on ASX-listed life sciences companies has predicted that the Australian industry is on track to at least equal the amount raised in initial public offerings in fiscal year 2004, with a bountiful first quarter of fiscal 2005 -- in which seven Australian companies raised AUD$93.5 million -- already under its belt. [ + ]

The British government has promised a big boost to spending on scientific research and more measures to combat animal extremists. [ + ]

Levon Khachigian, an associate professor at the University of NSW, has been awarded the 2004 Australasian Science prize for his team's work on developing potential therapeutics for vascular diseases, such as artherosclerosis, and cancer. [ + ]