BMS Future rests...on Mice?

Bristol Myers Squibb recently purchased 90% of the shares of a company called Medarex. What does Medarex do? Well, they make it easy for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs from mice for use in humans. Why should you care? Well, it just so happens that many of the blockbuster drugs manafactured by Novartis, Amgen and BMS are manafactured by "humanizing" antibody-excreting mouse cell lines, and if Mederex's method of doing this, dubbed UltiMab, proves effecient enough, it could speed up the development time for BMS drugs, giving them a head up on the competition. Why else should you care? Well, It should also be noted that pharmaceuticals derived from cell lines are the exact same drugs being targeted by the 12 year "generic ban" being talked about in the Senate nowadays (and that weve talked about in previous articles), so any new drugs developed from cell lines will be exclusive to the company that develops it for a long time, meaning big money for the pharmaceutical companies. BMS stock is only $20 a share, now might be a good time to buy...[Article Link] [UltiMab Link]

Time for a Biorector?

So what do you use in your cell culture lab? Do you handle your cell lines manually or do you use a bioreactor? Can you afford the additional costs that come with a bioreactor? Do you grow enough cell lines to justify the additional cost? This article attempts to answer that question, with links to many Bio reactor vendors. Personally, our lab is so tiny that I find it hard to justify the costs associated with a bioreactor (rarely do we grow more than 1 Liter of cells + media at a time), but maybe its time for your lab to ask itself the same question. [Link]