What is the connection between recombinant pharmaceutical giant, Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA) and sequencing-by-hybridization specialist, HySeq (Sunnyvale, CA). One answer is that George Rathman, founder and former chairman of Amgen, became CEO of HySeq in May this year. But an equally valid response, albeit one of which William of Occam would not approve, is that Amgen continues to fight in the US courts for rights to erythropoetin with Transkaryotic Therapies, which has nevertheless applied to US and European regulators for approval to launch an erythropoietin product with Aventis Healthcare which, in the meantime, has received antitrust clearance for its $450 million research alliance with Millenium Pharmaceuticals, whose first pharmaceutical partner, Hoffmann-La Roche has agreed to expand its marketing agreement on the polymerase chain reaction with PE Biosystems Group, whose sister company, Celera Genomics, announced a five-year comprehensive genomics agreement with Immunex Corporation, which has signed a deal for the development of an antibody against human epidermal growth factor with Abgenix, which signed a marketing and sales agreement for antibody therapy for graft versus host disease with Sangstat, which has settled its cyclosporine patent dispute with Novartis, whose Agricultural Discovery Institute has developed a commercial gene chip for Arabidopsis with Affymetrix, which has received a Markman judgement in its patent dispute with Hyseq.