It is now believed that more than 60 per cent of genes are alternatively spliced, a final nail in the coffin, if it needed one, of the one-gene-one-protein hypothesis.

If your brain disengages when you read the word 'ethics', perhaps you'd better switch it on again, writes Iain Scott -- there's a lot you haven't heard on the subject.

Results in Brief: Vertex, Varian, Watson, Chiron, Alcon, Eyetech, Elan, NicOx, MorphoSys, Actelion, AstraZeneca, Shire, GSK, Bristol-Myers Squibb, QLT, Millennium, Celgene, Invitrogen, InterMune, Charles River, Ranbaxy, Takeda, Sankyo, Daiichi, Solvay

The field of personalised medicine is changing slowly, but in a substantive way, said speakers at the meeting of the Personalised Medicine Coalition (PMC) late last month.

A new environment for pharmaceutical companies is on the horizon and it will be the fittest who survive, predicts Ian Nisbet.

As the elusive and expensive search for validated molecular biomarkers continues apace, many companies are incorporate biomarkers as compounds move through the development process, especially markers for mechanism, toxicity, and efficacy, with the aim of using these markers as drugs undergo clinical trials.

The Burrill Biotech Select Index slipped 4.6 per cent in January, but Steve Burrill is bullish about 2005, despite the ramifications of the Merck-Vioxx situation spilling over into the biotech sector.

"The right drug for the right patient at the right time" could be the motto of the Personalised Medicine Coalition (PMC), a non-profit group announced last week in Washington. The coalition, which includes members from industry, government, academia, and patient advocacy groups, aims to "foster understanding and adoption of personalised medicine for the benefit of patients."

Hopes that a burst of high-flying IPOs would fan investor interest in biotechnology were dashed in Q2, as several companies -- including Acadia Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals -- had to accept much lower prices than anticipated. Otherwise, it was an uneventful second quarter, and tools companies managed to maintain last year's hard-earned gains, adding 1 per cent to their index. Discovery companies, however, dipped 9 per cent.

Meditech Research (ASX: MTR) has appointed former CSL and Millennium Pharmaceuticals executive Dr Ian Nisbet as CEO to replace Chris Carter who stepped down on Friday, after a shareholder stoush in April forced his resignation.

Cancer specialists remain intrigued by the potential of genomic tools, but noticeably unconvinced by their performance to date.