The Howard Hughes Medical Institute handed out 28 grants to young scientists who came to the US for their education and then returned to their native countries to continue their work. Of the total, seven – one in four – came from China (see story). And four of the seven have found a home at Beijing’s National Institute of Biological Sciences. The awards carry a financial prize of $650,000 over five years.

Deals and Transactions

EntreMed (NSDQ: ENMD), a clinical stage US biotech, landed $10 million from a group of investors with China roots (see story). The investors included Tak W. Mak, PhD, a renowned cancer scientist who discovered EntreMed’s leading drug candidate, ENMD-2076. Dr. Mak is a previous investor in EntreMed and is also a part of a company that owns the China rights to ENMD-2076.

Featured Companies

Saladax Biomedical, a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania medical diagnostic reagent developer and manufacturer, believes China will be a big part of the company’s future (see story). Edward L. Erickson, CEO of Saladax, told ChinaBio® Today in an exclusive interview, “The volume of the market in China for our products appears to be larger than the US and Europe put together.” Saladax makes MyCare™ therapeutic dose management products, and its major product is currently My5-FU™, a dose management test for 5-FU chemotherapy.

SuperNova Diagnostics®, a US-based, global diagnostics company with deep China connections, is developing a point of care platform based on LCD technology (see story). The device combines ease of use with low cost – a seemingly unbeatable combination. And it is now moving toward production. “It’s going to be a good year for Supernova Diagnostics,” said Neil Campbell, CEO and Co-Founder of the company in a ChinaBio® Today interview. “There aren’t a lot of technologies out there that can do what we do.”

Trials and Approvals

Syneron Medical (NSDQ: ELOS), an Israeli company that makes aesthetic devices, received SFDA approval for five of the company’s products: eLaser, eLight, eMatrix, eMax and VelaShape systems (see story). The company said the approvals constituted a “significant” expansion of its China product offerings. Syneron began marketing its products in China in 2008.

Disclosure: none.

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