As the biotechnology industry matures and more companies become profitable, many are looking outside their traditional business areas to grow -- with mixed results.

The failure of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu to save the lives of patients with established H5N1 avian influenza infections may be a consequence of the drug's design, mode of delivery, and the uniqueness of the virus itself, according to experts.

ASX-listed, Singapore-based Rockeby Biomed (ASX:RBY) has said it might break even in the year ending June 2007, thanks to its new bird flu test kits.

Melbourne-based Biota Holdings (ASX:BTA) has confirmed that three more countries have placed orders for Relenza, the anti-flu drug developed by Biota and commercialised by Britain's GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Sydney-based biopharma Apollo Life Sciences has closed its AUD$9.5 million initial public offering early and heavily oversubscribed, its underwriter Blackwood Capital said.

Biota Holdings (ASX:BTA) has developed a new class of orally-effective antivirals against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection that the company hopes will go to Phase I trials by 2006.

Trading in shares of Melbourne drug developer Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) was halted today, in the wake of after the developers of the promising new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri withdrew it from the market after a patient died from a rare viral infection of the brain.

'Superman' actor Christopher Reeves, who died yesterday in the US from complications of an infection, was a great ambassador for stem cell research and raised the profile of research around the world, Monash University's Alan Trounson said today.

British scientists have received permission to clone human embryos for medical research, in what they believe to be the first such licence to be granted in Europe.

It was a confounding mystery: why does Iressa, the highly touted AstraZeneca lung cancer drug approved by the FDA one year ago, work effectively in just a fraction of patients?

Johnson & Johnson's first-quarter earnings have jumped 20 per cent on higher sales of prescription drugs and medical devices, prompting it to raise its full-year profit forecast.