Exclusive: Baxter explores sale of its vaccines business - sources

By Olivia Oran and Arno Schuetze and Soyoung Kim

NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc is exploring a sale of its vaccines business, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest healthcare company to look at divesting non-core assets to focus on key strengths.

The medical equipment and pharmaceuticals company is working with Goldman Sachs Group to find a buyer for the unit and has reached out to potentially interested parties including private equity firms, the people said on Wednesday, asking not to be named because the matter is not public.

The Baxter unit, which includes vaccines for meningitis C and tick-borne encephalitis as well as collaborations for the development of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, had 2013 sales of close to $300 million according to regulatory filings.

It could not be learned how much the business could fetch in a sale, as the deliberation is at an early stage and Baxter has yet to send out detailed financial information to potential buyers, the people added.

Representatives for Baxter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The vaccines business, which is part of Baxter's $6.5 billion BioScience segment, is profitable but the company has determined it is not core, one person said.

Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter makes medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products, focusing on areas including hemophilia, immune disorders and infectious diseases.

It divides its operations between the BioScience division, which makes products including plasma-based proteins to treat hemophilia, and a Medical Products division. The medical products unit makes equipment used to inject fluids and drugs and had 2013 sales of nearly $8.7 billion.

Baxter is yet another example of large healthcare companies seeking to sell or spin off smaller divisions so they can focus on their mainstay products and allocate capital better. They have shown a new willingness to consider whether other companies may be better owners for certain assets.

Novartis AG is taking a hard look at its sub-scale businesses -- animal health, vaccines and over-the-counter medicines -- for a potential divestiture, chief executive Joe Jimenez told Reuters last week, adding that at least one of the three is not expected to make the cut.

Merck & Co Inc is also in talks with several companies about selling its consumer healthcare business, a deal that could value the unit at between $10 billion and $12 billion, Reuters previously reported.

(Reporting by Olivia Oran, Soyoung Kim in New York and Arno Schuetz in Frankfurt; editing by Andrew Hay)

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Breast Cancer Startup Challenge Inventions and Winners

March 5, 2014, 1:00PM

By Anthony Beal

Posted in: cancer

The Avon Foundation for Women, in partnership with NCI and the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), have announced the ten winners of a world-wide competition to accelerate the process of bringing emerging breast cancer research technologies to market.

Each team was required to produce a short video explaining and highlighting their ideas.? The videos are from the winners of the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge.? This listing does not constitute NCI’s endorsement of the companies or potential products and does not guarantee a grant of license for any federally-owned technology.

Videos from the winning teams are below.

Challenge #1. Diagnostic from Biopsies with Software Analysis
Category: Diagnostics/Health IT
Lead Inventor: Tom Misteli, PhD, NCI
Winner: University of Cambridge

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Challenge #2 -Immunotherapy Using Modified Self Tumor Cells
Category: Therapeutic
Lead Inventor: Dennis Klinman, M.D., Ph.D., NCI
Winner: Washington University in Saint Louis

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Challenge #3 – Combination of Tissue Reconstruction and Recurrence Prevention
Category: Device/Therapeutic
Lead Inventor: Karen Burg, Ph.D., Clemson University
Winner: Tulane University

Finalist: Clemson University

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Challenge #4 – Human monoclonal Antibody Based Cancer Therapies
Category: Therapeutic, Diagnostic
Lead Inventor: Mitchell Ho, Ph.D., NCI
Winner: Stanford University

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Challenge #5 -Immunotherapy Using Granulysin Activated Monocytes
Category: Therapeutic
Lead Inventor: Alan Krensky, M.D., Northwestern University
Winner: Northwestern University

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Challenge #6 – Anti-cancer Toxin
Category: Therapeutic
Lead Inventor: Nadya Tarasova, Ph.D., NCI
Winner: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Challenge #7 – Versatile Delivery Method for Cancer Therapeutics
Category: Vaccine or Drug Delivery (Protein or RNA)
Lead Inventors: Stanislaw J Kaczmarczyk, Ph.D. & Deb Chatterjee, Ph.D., NCI
Winner: University of Cambridge

Finalist: Wake Forest University

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Challenge #8 -Genomic Based Diagnostic Assay
Category: Diagnostics and prognostic
Lead Inventor: Steven Libutti, M.D., FACS, NCI
Winner: University of California, Berkeley

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Challenge #9 -Tissue-based Diagnostic Assay
Category: Diagnostic
Lead Inventor: Stephen M. Hewitt, M.D., Ph.D., NCI
Winner: McGill University

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Challenge #10 – Diagnostic Kit for Therapy Benefit Prediction
Category: Diagnostic
Lead Inventor: Sherry Yang, MD., Ph.D., NCI
Winner: Tulane University

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Biologists use sound to identify breeding grounds of endangered whales

Remote acoustic monitoring among endangered whales is the subject of a major article by two doctoral students in The College of Arts and Sciences.

Leanna Matthews and Jessica McCordic, members of the Parks Lab in the Department of Biology, have co-authored "Remote Acoustic Monitoring of North Atlantic Right Whales Reveals Seasonal and Diel Variations in Acoustic Behavior." The article appears in the current issue of PLOS ONE, an inclusive, peer-reviewed, open-access resource from the Public Library of Science in San Francisco.

Susan Parks, assistant professor of biology for whom the lab is named, says the article confirms what many conservationists fear -- that Roseway Basin, a heavily traveled shipping lane, off the coast of Nova Scotia, is a vital habitat area for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

"Remote acoustic monitoring is an important tool for understanding patterns in animal communication, and studies on the seasonality of context-specific acoustic signals allow inferences to be made about the behavior and habitat use of certain species," says Parks, an expert in behavioral ecology, acoustic communication and marine science. "Our results support the hypothesis that the North Atlantic right whale's breeding season occurs mostly from August to November and that this basin is a widely used habitat area."

More than 30 percent of all right whales use Roseway Basin, part of a larger geological formation called the Scotian Shelf, throughout the year. With only 400-500 in existence, these whales, says Parks, must congregate in the basin to feed and find mates.

Already, the U.S. and Canadian governments have taken steps to redirect shipping traffic, in response to several fatal collisions with right whales.

Matthews, whose research includes animal behavior and physiology, says the object of the article is to determine how and when Roseway Basin is used for male breeding activities.

"Part of the answer lies in a loud 'gunshot' sound, made by the male whale," says Matthews, the article's lead author. "We're not exactly sure what the gunshot is, but we think it may be a male-to-male antagonistic signal or an advertisement to females. … During a two-year period, we used non-invasive acoustic monitoring to analyze gunshots at two locations on the Scotian Shelf. The resultant data has provided tremendous insights into the whales' feeding and mating habits."

Matthews and her team found that gunshot sound production occurred mainly in the autumn and, more often than not, at night. Researchers say this kind of information is essential to not only the individual fitness of each whale, but also the survival of the species, in general.

McCordic, whose research spans animal behavior and communication, says the observed seasonal increase in gunshot sound production is consistent with the current understanding of the right whale breeding season.

"Our results demonstrate that detection of gunshots with remote acoustic monitoring can be a reliable way to track shifts in distribution and changes in acoustic behavior, including possible mating activities," she says, acknowledging David Mellinger, associate professor of marine bioacoustics at Oregon State University, who collected and provided access to the recordings used in the study. "It also provides a better understanding of right whale behavior and what needs to be done with future conservation efforts."

Parks, who assisted with the article, is proud of her students' accomplishments.

"Right whales are increasingly rare, and Leanna's and Jessica's research helps us understand how to better protect them," she says. "By identifying potential breeding areas, we might be able to save this critically endangered species."

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The above story is based on materials provided by Syracuse University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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New video-based teaching tool helps students learn animal-based lab work

For students and scientists beginning animal-based lab work, seeing a research procedure performed by experts is by far the most effective method of learning. Now the Cambridge-based company, JoVE, releases the new online video-based tool, Model Organisms II, to revolutionize the teaching of fundamental experiments in the three most common laboratory organisms -- the mouse, chick and zebrafish.

"Each of these species makes unique demands upon researchers, both in terms of the steps required for their maintenance and reproduction, as well as the tools and techniques available to study them," said Aaron Kolski-Andreaco, PhD., JoVE's Chief Product Officer, "The Model Organisms II collection provides a great overview of these nuances, in addition to providing visual demonstrations of techniques essential to working with each model."

Contrary to the traditional, text-based educational materials, Model Organisms II presents a powerful combination of scientific animation with video demonstrations by scientists from leading research institutions around the world. This novel tool is the latest installment in JoVE Science Education database dedicated to teaching laboratory fundamentals through simple, easy-to-understand visual presentations. For universities and colleges, the JoVE Science Education videos are a valuable new resource for efficient teaching and research.

"I wanted to find justification for buying it, so I sent around a message to faculty in biology," said Michael Newman, a Head Librarian and Bibliographer at Stanford University, "Those things usually don't get much response, but this time I got some pretty enthusiastic replies."

Stanford subscribed to the JoVE Science Education database in December 2013, shortly after JoVE released this database. Over 100 institutions -- including those ranging from the Ivy League to community colleges -- also purchased a subscription within only three months following the product launch.

"I've used it as a class tool where students can watch a technique on the screen and then do it immediately afterwards, and for what they're going to do the next time the class meets, so they'll come in a little less blind," said assistant professor, Dr. Jason Kuehner of Emmanuel College in Boston, MA, "For something like western blotting this is really good. That's a fairly laborious technique with multiple steps, and for students it's very easy to get confused as to what each step in the protocol means."

You can view the Science Education content at www.jove.com/se.

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Sensing gravity with acid: Scientists discover role for protons in neurotransmission

While probing how organisms sense gravity and acceleration, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the University of Utah uncovered evidence that acid (proton concentration) plays a key role in communication between neurons. The surprising discovery is reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team, led by the late MBL senior scientist Stephen M. Highstein, discovered that sensory cells in the inner ear continuously transmit information on orientation of the head relative to gravity and low-frequency motion to the brain using protons as the key means of synaptic signal transmission. (The synapse is the structure that allows one neuron to communicate with another by passing a chemical or electrical signal between them.)

"This addresses how we sense gravity and other low-frequency inertial stimuli, like acceleration of an automobile or roll of an airplane," says co-author Richard Rabbitt, a professor at University of Utah and adjunct faculty member in the MBL's Program in Sensory Physiology and Behavior. "These are very long-lasting signals requiring a a synapse that does not fatigue or lose sensitivity over time. Use of protons to acidify the space between cells and transmit information from one cell to another could explain how the inner ear is able to sense tonic signals, such as gravity, in a robust and energy efficient way."

The team found that this novel mode of neurotransmission between the sensory cells (type 1 vestibular hair cells) and their target afferent neurons (calyx nerve terminals), which send signals to the brain, is continuous or nonquantal. This nonquantal transmission is unusual and, for low-frequency stimuli like gravity, is more energy efficient than traditional synapses in which chemical neurotransmitters are packaged in vesicles and released quantally.

The calyx nerve terminal has a ball-in-socket shape that envelopes the sensory hair cell and helps to capture protons exiting the cell. "The inner-ear vestibular system is the only place where this particular type of synapse is present," Rabbitt says. "But the fact that protons are playing a key role here suggests they are likely to act as important signaling molecules in other synapses as well."

Previously, Erik Jorgensen of University of Utah (who recently received a Lillie Research Innovation Award from the MBL and the University of Chicago) and colleagues discovered that protons act as signaling molecules between muscle cells in the worm C. elegans and play an important role in muscle contraction. The present paper is the first to demonstrate that protons also act directly as a nonquantal chemical neurotransmitter in concert with classical neurotransmission mechanisms. The discovery suggests that similar intercellular proton signaling mechanisms might be at play in the central nervous system.

Stephen Highstein, who died in January 2014, was associate director of the MBL's Program in Sensory Physiology and Behavior. Mary Anne Mann, a research associate in the program, also participated in this research, as did Gay Holstein of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

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Blood-brain barrier repair after stroke may prevent chronic brain deficits

Following ischemic stroke, the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents harmful substances such as inflammatory molecules from entering the brain, can be impaired in cerebral areas distant from initial ischemic insult. This disruptive condition, known as diaschisis, can lead to chronic post-stroke deficits, University of South Florida researchers report.

In experiments using laboratory rats modeling ischemic stroke, USF investigators studied the consequences of the compromised BBB at the chronic post-stroke stage. Their findings appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Comparative Neurology.

"Following ischemic stroke, the pathological changes in remote areas of the brain likely contribute to chronic deficits," said neuroscientist and study lead author Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, PhD, associate professor in the USF Health Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair. "These changes are often related to the loss of integrity of the BBB, a condition that should be considered in the development of strategies for treating stroke and its long-term effects."

Edward Haller of the USF Department of Integrative Biology, the coauthor who performed electron microscopy and contributed to image analysis, emphasized that "major BBB damage was found in endothelial and pericyte cells, leading to capillary leakage in both brain hemispheres." These findings were essential in demonstrating persistence of microvascular alterations in chronic ischemic stroke.

While acute stroke is life-threatening, the authors point out that survivors often suffer insufficient blood flow to many parts of the brain that can contribute to persistent damage and disability. Their previous investigation of subacute ischemic stroke showed far-reaching microvascular damage even in areas of the brain opposite from the initial stroke injury. While most studies of stroke and the BBB explore the acute phase of stroke and its effect on the blood-brain barrier, the present study revealed the longer-term effects in various parts of the brain.

The pathologic processes of stroke-induced vascular injury tend to occur in a "time-dependent manner," and can be separated into acute (minutes to hours), subacute (hours to days), and chronic (days to months). BBB incompetence during post-stroke changes is well-documented, with some studies showing the BBB opening can last up to four to five days after stroke. This suggests that harmful substances entering the brain during this prolonged BBB leakage might increase post-ischemic brain injury.

In this study, the researchers used laboratory rats modeling ischemic stroke and observed injury not only in the primary area of the stroke, but also in remote areas, where persistent BBB damage could cause chronic loss of competence.

"Our results showed that the compromised BBB integrity detected in post-ischemic rat cerebral hemisphere capillaries -- both ipsilateral and contralateral to initial stroke insult -- might indicate chronic diaschisis," Garbuzova-Davis said. "Widespread microvascular damage caused by endothelial cell impairment could aggravate neuronal deterioration. For this reason, chronic diaschisis poses as a therapeutic target for stroke."

The primary focus for therapy development could be restoring endothelial and/or astrocytic integrity towards BBB repair, which may be "beneficial for many chronic stroke patients," senior authors Cesar V. Borlongan and Paul R. Sanberg suggest. The researchers also recommend that cell therapy might be used to replace damaged endothelial cells.

"A combination of cell therapy and the inhibition of inflammatory factors crossing the blood-brain barrier may be a beneficial treatment for stroke," Garbuzova-Davis said.

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