Broken Beaker moving to Boston!

Yes, Broken Beaker is moving to Boston, home of the Bruins, Celtics, and Har-vuhd! It will take me a couple of weeks to get settled into my new home (and Grad-student life) and updates will be rare until mid September, but rest assured we will be back online reporting from the hub of bio-tech in North America!

Stylin Sonar Panels

Solar Panels are starting to get a bit more fashionable, thanks to SRS Energy, which has designed solar panels which can integrate seamlessly with Spanish tile. Along with being fashionable, the average homeowner will produce 860 kwH per year! [Article]

DNA Sequencing...Half off!

Well, not really, but researchers at Stanford have figured out a really cheap (and effective) method for sequencing the human genome. The entire process only required 3 researchers and less than $50,000! Countdown until health insurance companies require a submission of its customers entire genome starts now! [Article Link]

Wyeth Under Fire

Wyeth (Just purchased by Pfizer for a whopping $68 Billion) is, well...screwed. Reports have surfaced today in the New York Times that claim Wyeth has been paying "Ghostwriters" to basically write articles for scientific journals saying how great Wyeth-produced horomones are. I guess thats not a big deal, except for the fact that, well, thats kind of a conflict of interest. Not to mention kind of illegal. Oh and did I mention that Wyeth has been caught up in a class action lawsuit? By whom you may be asking? Well, by the 8000 women who used Wyeth horomones such as Premarin and Prempro and said it made them sick. Well see how this is going to pan out, and maybe the allegations are un-founded, but my guess is that Wyeth is going to eat it on this one. [NYT Article Link]

Wanna Build A Startup?

Need a little inspiration to start up your own Biotech? An article over at Inc Magazine talks about 7 startup started by ordinary people, who, through hard work, innovation and a little bit a cash, grew their companies to be worth millions! I know, its a little more cost-intense to start a biotech, but there's definitely something to take away from this article! Check it out! [Link]

Big Pharma vs Generics, Round 2

Man, are generics becoming a hot topic or what!? The Associated Press has released a new article about the battle heating up between generic drug-makers and Big Pharma (Amgen, Pfizer, etc). In case your unfamiliar with whats going on right now (and you definetly should be, it effects anyone in the healthcare industry), Obamas recent push for Healthcare reform has riled up the big pharmaceutical companies, because theyre afraid that to cut down on costs, generic drugs will be allowed to be made sooner than later (Lower patent time = lower profits). Big Pharma is asking for a 12-year generic ban, while generic drug makers are pushing for a 5 year cap. Congress has voted on a 12 year ban on generics, but will it pass the Senate? What about the threat of a presidential veto? And how will this effect the stock-market, since recently a lot of the healthcare companies have been carrying a lot of the rallys occuring recently on Wall Street? Read the full article. [AP Article] [Past Broken Beaker Article]