Clean fuel shift

Diversa, the San Diego bioprospecting company, is acquiring a biofuels specialist — Celunol of Cambridge, Massachusetts — and shifting its corporate focus to clean energy. Diversa says that it will continue to try and develop drugs based on natural compounds, but will move its headquarters to Cambridge. It intends to retain an undetermined number of its 200 personnel in San Diego to do research and development. The $180 million acquisition of the privately held company is expected to be completed in June.

Drug drought

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved just 18 new drugs — ones whose active ingredient has not been marketed before — during 2006. The number of new approvals is the same as that for 2005, and the worst in recent history, apart from 2002, when only 17 new compounds were approved. In 1996, 53 such drugs won approval. Since 19 prescription medications came off patent in 2006 and became available as generics, the industry had fewer patented products on the market at the end of the year than at the start. The numbers were compiled by RPM Report, a monthly drug regulation and policy newsletter.

Alternative climate

The United States has extended its lead as the most favourable location for 'clean' energy businesses to make money, says an annual 'attractiveness survey' by Ernst & Young. The London accountancy firm says that President Bush's support for biofuels and a raft of subsidies and other measures aimed at cutting oil imports, together with the sheer size of the market, makes the United States the most promising location for such companies. India and Spain came second-equal in the rankings.