After a string of failures, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Targacept and its neuronal nicotinic receptor (NNR) therapeutics will be replaced by engineered human proteases for hemophilia and complement-mediated disorders in a reverse merger with privately-held Catalyst Biosciences in South San Francisco.

What do the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and South African heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard have in common? They both depended on extreme manual dexterity in their chosen careers. How remarkable, then, that they both suffered from the debilitation condition, rheumatoid arthritis.

Thomas Lönngren, the former head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), will probably have to relinquish all or some of the commercial appointments that he has taken up since his departure from the agency. EMA said on 21 March that Mr Lönngren must wait two years before he takes up a position with the private sector pharmaceutical industry. The announcement follows controversy over a potential conflict of interest after Mr Lönngren joined private sector companies shortly after leaving the EMA.

Biopharma, medical device, and in vitro diagnostics start-ups brought in a total of $780 million in Q3 2010, a 29% jump from the previous quarter and a 50% increase from Q3 2009. A total of eight start-up acquisitions closed in Q3, quite a jump from the first two quarters of 2010. The third quarter saw 14 biopharma alliances covering a wide range of therapeutic categories, the most popular indication being cancer.