Ontology engineering

© 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.Purpose-built chromosome“It’s functional, and alsoa very good metaphor forwhat the center is tryingto achieve.” Larry Malcic,one of the architects ofLondon’s UK Centre forMedical Research andInnovation (UKCMRI),says scientists exclaimed,“that’s a chromosome,”when he presented thebuilding designs withoutknowing its symbolicsignificance. The new$978 million UKCMRI isbeing built in central London as a partnership between University College London, CancerResearch UK, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. It will house fourleading science organizations to conduct biomedical research on genetics, stem cells andcommon diseases, and is expected to open in 2015. (Times, December 8, 2009)in their words“They just wait untilWHO [World HealthOrganization] says‘pandemic’ and activatethe contracts.” WolfgangWodarg, a memberof the German SocialDemocratic Party andchair of PACE healthcommittee, convenientlyshifts blame for Germany’ssurplus H1N1 vaccine stocks on to the companiesthat redirected resources and expertise to make aproduct available in just a few months. (PharmaTimes, January 4, 2010)“These sweetheart deals are being done on thebacks of consumers. From the perspective of theFederal Trade Commission, [they] are one of theworst abuses across the board in healthcare andSelected research collaborationsshould be stopped.” Federal Trade Commission(New York) chairman Jon Leibowitz will press for aprovision in the healthcare reform bill to end dealsin which brand-name drugmakers pay genericproducers to delay copycat versions of best-sellingmeds. (New York Times, January 12, 2010)“The pharmaceutical industry has destroyedso much institutional knowledge over the lastdecade that it makes the Taliban, blowing uptemples, look like high school pranksters.”Anonymous blogger. (In the Pipeline,January 12, 2010)“Cannibalism is rife within the biotech industry!”Barry Canton, a cofounder of Ginkgo Bioworks(Boston), on how his and other companies areacquiring equipment castoffs from universitiesand other companies from online auctioneers.(The Boston Globe, January 4, 2010)newsin briefFDA balks on MedImmune’scell-grown flu vaccineThe shift towards new cell culture–based fluvaccine production has been dealt a blowas MedImmune of Gaithersburg, Maryland,puts its manufacturing efforts on hold. TheAstraZeneca subsidiary took this step afterthe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)requested follow-on studies that wouldsubstantially increase the cost and time tomarket beyond what the company expected.In its contract with the Department of Healthand Human Services (HHS), MedImmuneproposed an efficacy study comparing immuneresponses in volunteers receiving cellproducedwith those receiving egg-producedvaccines, considering them geneticallyidentical, followed by a large safety trial. Butthe FDA termed cell-grown vaccine a newproduct, requesting Medimmune conduct aclinical trial during an influenza season, aswell as demonstrate efficacy in adults beforevaccinating children. The plan “becamecumbersome and complicated and did notaddress significant scientific and medicalissues we thought we needed to address toadvance this vaccine,” says George Kemble,vice president of vaccine R&D at MedImmune.“I don’t think there is any deliberate delay,”says Anthony Fauci, director of the NationalInstitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,noting the move is due to safety and efficacydata gathering. Jose Romero, member of theFDA vaccine advisory committee, comments inan unofficial capacity, “General FDA concernsinclude exposing humans to adventitiousagents that might be lurking in cell linesor the remote possibility of transmitting anoncogene that could create cancer in a humanhost.” Elsewhere, last November, Novartis ofBasel inaugurated a $1 billion cell culture fluvaccine manufacturing facility in partnershipwith the HHS. The plant in Holly Springs,North Carolina, is the first large-scale cellculture flu vaccine and adjuvant productionfacility in the US.Wendy WolfsonPartner 1 Partner 2Alopexx Pharmaceuticals(Cambridge,Massachusetts)Seattle Genetics(Bothell, Washington)Athersys (Cleveland)Sanofi-Aventis(Paris)Millennium/Takeda(Osaka, Japan)Pfizer(New York)Syngenta (Basel) CSR Sugar(Melbourne,Australia)*Financial details not disclosed.$(millions) Details375 Sanofi-Aventis will pay Alopexx for rights to codevelop a monoclonal antibody (mAb) for treating Escherichia coli,Staphylococcus aureus and other infections. Alopexx receives an upfront payment, research funding and is eligiblefor milestone payments that could reach $375 million in total, plus royalties. Sanofi will have the option tolicense the product, which will be in phase 1 trials in 2010.290 Millennium will pay $60 million upfront, plus milestones that could exceed $230 million, to codevelop SeattleGenetics’ brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35). The antibody drug conjugate composed of an anti-CD30 mAb andmonomethyl auristatin E is currently in a pivotal phase 2 trial to treat relapsed and refractory Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Under the agreement, the Takeda Group keeps commercial rights to the drug outside the US and Canadawhere Seattle Genetics retains full rights.111 Pfizer will pay Athersys $6 million initially and up to $105 million in the future for rights to develop Athersys’sstem cells to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The product, MultiStem, consists of multipotent adultprogenitor cell, and is in early clinical trials for heart attacks and in cancer patients receiving bone marrow transplants.* Syngenta has acquired exclusive global rights, excluding Australia, to CSR Sugar’s SugarBooster, a transgenic technologyto develop cane plants with high sugar content. The license agreement includes milestone payments and royaltieson product sales to CSR Sugar. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.nature biotechnology volume 28 number 2 february 2010 115