High court seeks Solicitor General’s views on whether a whistleblower must identify a specific false claim submitted to the government or just have evidence to infer the submission; Solicitor General has previously supported latter position.

2007 was an awful year for drug delivery companies, and 2008 is shaping up to be no better. The share prices of many drug delivery companies are trading at or below their 10-year averages as investors realize that convenient delivery of large molecules that heretofore required painful injections isn't necessarily a compelling commercial opportunity. Still, intrepid venture capitalists are investing in some companies that are capitalizing on one key difference: these fledgling start-ups use nanotechnology to create therapies that are significantly different--especially in terms of safety and efficacy--from the first-generation drugs they hope to supplant.

BIND Biosciences generates nanoparticles with unique targeting agents that allow them to home in on cancerous cells with deadly precision. Because it's impossible to mathematically design the optimal particle, BIND scientists have created large combinatorial libraries of nanoparticles with different biophysical and chemical properties.

Takeda and Millennium's recent out-sized tie-up reflects the different but real industry pressures from which both companies are suffering.Facing near-term patent exiprations of several key drugs, Takeda desperately needed to bulk up its R&D pipeline. Millennium, for its own part, was heavily dependent on the label expansion of its lead product, Velcade, as it struggled to maintain sustainable earnings growth and advance its early stage compounds through the clinic.